Queen Of Roses
by M'lettuce
Summary: Lyonette Griffin, having lived in Japan for 13 years after moving from England, thought she would have seen everything her town would have had to offer, so imagine her surprise when her and her best friend, Issei Hyodou, get caught up in a whole new world...In their own school, no less! (Fem-OC, lots of fanmade stuff, multi-POV.)
1. All my friends are perverts, and so am I

**Just deciding to make a small pre-chapter to explain how this story is going to be, as well as say some stuff.**

**First of all, I'd like to state that at the point that I'm writing this (19/11/19) I have only watched Season One of High School DxD, so there may be things that are inconsistent with future happenings within the series.**

**Second of all, piggybacking off of the previous thing, I would like to give a special thank you to Silver The Snow Wolf for helping me with certain stages of planning and preparation, as well as the creation of certain character traits/abilities, as a person who doesn't know anything about DxD, Silver has been a great help to me, go check out his FanFiction profile, he's a personal friend of mine, and a damn good one at that!**

**Thirdly, I would like to note that many of the characters in this story were not created specifically for this story, many of them were created for other stories or reasons, so if certain things don't fit in with DxD lore, that will most likely be why.**

**Either way, thanks for reading this disclaimer, enjoy the story!**

_CHAPTER ONE - All my friends are perverts, and so am I.  
_

_[Perspective of: Lyonette Griffin]_

I've felt this pain before, haven't I? This horrid sensation, akin to having a hot iron dragged across an open wound. It feels so familiar, yet...I cannot recall when I last felt it. I cannot recall the last time that a wound burned so much, but I feel like I should. I feel like I should remember the first time I nearly died, the last time I was left for dead like this, but I cannot remember at all. I was going to die here, I was going to die for trying to save my best friend...And it wasn't even worth it.

"Aww...Did you see that, Issei? Your little friend came to help you!" the scathing, mocking voice of my murderer- no, our murderer remarked, grinning over at the crippled corpse behind me, the one which was out of my vision, but I could perceive non-the less. "...Shame she didn't get very far, but it's the thought that counts, I suppose.~"

How I wanted to do something. How I wanted to get up from my knees and rip her to shreds, just to see this black winged menace crying for mercy...But I couldn't. Just like I was too slow to save my friend, I was too weak to save myself. I shuddered, craning my head to look at the impaled corpse of my friend...And that's when I saw her.

Red hair, red like the blood spewing out of my doomed body, red like the roses that my mother would adorn my hair with when I was a child...

Red like my sight, when thinking about what started all this...

I clutch my now burning right arm, staring at her.

_[Timeskip: Earlier that day.]_

"...Lyonette, wake up!"

I practically jumped out of bed, my body suddenly jolting away as I heard my name shouted, I stumbled a little, nearly falling over. I hyperventilated for a moment, my blurry surroundings slowly coming into focus very slightly, I fumbled next to me, my hand making contact with a hard wood object, before I wrapped my fingers around a pair of glasses on top of it, slowly bringing them to my face and sitting them atop my nose. Calming down slightly upon putting on my glasses, I slowly sat back down on my bed behind me, looking around the area, my room.

"...Sheesh...That was one hell of a fever dream." I muttered, looking down at my arm and rubbing it. The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs made me divert my attention towards my door, a knocking telling me everything I needed to know.

"Lyonette, mother has shouted you a least a dozen times now, please wake up." the overly polite, faux posh British accent of my sister could be heard from behind the door. Tylia, my twin sister, had always done this, ever since we found out that we moved over here from England, she's been putting on a painfully posh British accent and referring to people as 'Sir' or 'Lady', it's cute, but a bit annoying at times.

"I know...I'm up. I'm up." I responded, opening my wardrobe and taking out my uniform, a long sleeved, button down shirt, along with a little black bow to put around my neck, along with some other bits and bobs. I smiled a little, taking off my glasses for a moment to strip myself out of my nightclothes and change. I must have been taking a while, as Tylia opened the door right when I was putting my little shoulder cape on.

"You are going to be late at this rate." she stated, putting her hand on her hip. "Please try and get changed faster."

"Calm your barely existant tits, Tylia, I'm almost dressed." I curtly replied, putting my glasses back on and fixing my uniform. Tylia simply frowned and left the room, leaving me to look at myself in the mirror. I blinked my bright yellow eyes at myself in the mirror, adjusting my skirt and sorting out my shirt, making sure the buttons were done up properly, after all, the last thing I need is my top button coming undone, and some pervert drooling over my chest- which trust me, considering my friends, is a _very_ prevalent issue. I exited my room, walking down the stairs into the living room of the house, where Tylia and my mother were sitting.

"Good morning, Lyonette." my mother greeted me with a tired smile on her face, the slight bags under her eyes indicating a fairly late night.

"Morning, mom." I said, smiling in return, looking at Tylia, who was simply staring at me, a slight scowl on her face. "What's up, sis? What's with that look?"

"Why do you look so happy? You're going to be late to school, yet here you are, standing around without a care in the world?" Tylia practically growled, folding her arms. It was just as my mother and I opened my mouth to speak, that I heard a loud, thunderous bang on the door.

"Lyonette! Lyonette!" I heard a panicked, slightly pissed off voice shout from behind the door, before I could even think of moving to open the door, whoever was on the other side proceeded to bust straight in. A boy with somewhat messy spikey brown hair, a pissed off look on his face and a dischevelled uniform. "Why the hell didn't you come and wake me up!?"

"...Oh, Issei." I muttered, blinking. This had always been part of our routine, after all, me and this boy, Issei Hyoudou, had been friends for...well, as long as I'd been in Japan, really. "...I honestly would have thought that that dumb alarm clock you have would have done my job for you."

"Either way! Where the hell were you?!" Issei said, glaring daggers at me, before looking at Tylia and my mother.

"She was busy sleeping in, like the apathetic whelp she is." Tylia stated, crossing her arms, looking at Issei.

"I love how you're complaining so much that I'm late for school, sis..." I got a bit closer to Tylia, pointing a finger in her face playfully. "...And yet you seemingly haven't even thought of going to school." Tylia went a bit pale, pushing my hand away from her.

"...I've been waiting for you to get up, Lyonette." Tylia stated after a moment of hesitation, folding her arms.

"What's the occasion? You don't normally wait for me." I responded, putting my hands on my hips and tilting my head with a smirk. Tylia stepped back a bit, her expression shifting from a slight bit of anger to a little bit of shame.

"...I...Uh, slept past the time I would usually get up, so mother told me to wait for you..." Tylia said grimly, looking away. I gave her a simple pat on the head, giggling.

"Welcome to the 'Late for school because of Lyonette' club!" Issei growled, folding his arms and scowling at me.

"Please be quiet, sir Hyodou." Tylia stated, grabbing her bag and walking out of the room. "I'm heading off, now that Lyonette is up." My mother looked at us both, giving us a gentle smile.

"You two should probably follow. You know how your sister gets when you aren't around, Lyonette." she quietly spoke, passing me my bag and stroking my head. "Tell Tylia I told her to have a good day, and the same goes for you two.~"

"I'm sure we will, miss Griffin." Issei said, in that false polite voice he normally does when he's trying to hide a perverted thought. The fact that he was hiding something like that couldn't have been more obvious, considering what he said soon after we left the house. "Lyonette, your mom is fine as hell!"

_"Ah shit, this conversation again."_ I thought to myself, rolling my eyes and sighing.

"Y-yes...You've said that pretty much every time you've come over to my house." I replied, shaking my head. "I honestly think you should try and keep your pervy thoughts better hidden, since I'm pretty sure one day my mom's going to hear you say that, and...I doubt she'll like that very much."

"Oh come on! You're getting on my case for being a pervert, but who was the one that let me, Matsuda and Motohama hide in your locker and watch you girls get changed?" Issei shouted, glaring at me like he was earlier.

"That was only because I wasn't having to get changed for that lesson." I stated, folding my arms and smirking ever so slightly. "...And because I wanted to get back at someone there..."

"And besides! You're always being all pervy anyway!" Issei responded, laughing a bit. "Before you start lecturing me on being a pervert, Lyo, just remember that you're a perv too!"

"Being a hypocrit doesn't invalidate your point!" I growled in response, scowling at Issei and folding my arms.

"It totally does!" Issei retorted, scowling at me and folding his arms, mirroring me. Pretty soon, we found ourselves at the gates of Kuoh Academy, the school me and Issei have been going to for the better part of at least 3 years. There was a large school building, along with a larger building which I believe is used for some of the clubs, but I've never been too sure of that, namely because I don't go to any clubs.

"Hush! We're at school, let's drop the subject!" I hissed, slapping Issei on the back of his head as we walked through the gates.

"Hey! No need to hit me! Jeez..." he complained, rubbing the back of his head and groaning slightly.

"Yo! Issei, Lyonette!" upon hearing the voice calling our names, we both looked up, seeing two boys, one with a shaved head and the other with black hair and a pair of glasses.

"Matsuda! Motohama!" Issei said, recovering from the clap to the back of the head I gave him almost instantly, waving at the two with the hand he wasn't using to rub the back of his head with.

And so, the Perverted Quadrio has been completed.

_[Timeskip: During Break Time]_

"...Why the hell did we enrol in this school again?" Issei mused, sitting up as the three of them laid on the ground, near where the tennis club's girls were jogging around and where the rest of the students were enjoying their breaks.

"If I'm remembering correctly, you three wanted to move here because this used to be an all-girls school..." I stated, looking at them from my sitting posistion nearby. "In other words, you mo-"

"Hell yeah! We moved here because up until a few years ago, this place used to be an all-girls school and was nothin' but chicks!" Matsuda said, pumping his fist in the air.

"...Yes. Like I was about to say..." I stated after a second of hesitation, thanks to being interrupted. "...Thank you for saying what I was already going to say, Matsuda."

"No problem, Lyo!" Matsuda said, grinning and putting his thumb up, obviously missing the sarcasm. Issei stood up, looking around the area, his expression seemingly looking a little pissed off.

"But look at us! Non of us have a girlfriend! It sucks..." Issei said, looking at Matsuda and Motohama, who then looked up at me.

"I mean...Lyo's a girl..." Motohama said, standing as a slightly perverted smirk came to his face as he stared at me, his eyes invisible behind his thick glasses. I folded my arms, shaking my head, not even bothering to say anything, which seemed to work, as he looked away with a defeated look on his face.

"I mean, yeah..." Issei said, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "...But, I'm pretty sure she'd dom us all if we did get with her."

"Damn right I would." I responded with a smirk, putting a hand on my hip. "Not that any of you three will have that chance, but hey."

"Don't rub it in!" Issei yelled, throwing his arms up in the air as if to highlight the point, to which I merely gave a teasing smirk. It was always fun to tease these three, all those hormones getting to their heads can yield amusing results such as this, after all, it's not like it's anything other than friendly banter at the end of the day, at least for me...Although, for all I know, they could be logging this in their heads as flirting, so that may be a problem somewhere down the line.

"Either way, you still have god-knows how long to get girlfriends." I said, with a sincere smile on my face, causing all three of the boys to look at me. "I mean...If I can find someone-"

My pep-talk was immedietely interupted, setting a new record for the amount of times I've been interupted in five minutes, by the shrieking of a group of swooning girls coming from behind us, I nearly jumped a mile until I realised what it was, we all turned to look at the source of the loud noises and collectively gazed at the following scene.

"Kiba, wait up!" the shrill voice of one of the aforementioned girls squeaked, running up to a boy with relatively short blonde hair, with two more following and standing beside her. "What are you doing right now?" she continued, a smile on her face as her friend to her left piped up.

"Yeah! You maybe wanna go sing karaoke with us?"

"Thanks, but I've got a meeting with my club." the boy stated, much to the audible and visible dismay of the trio of girls. "I really do wish I could go, though, it's very cool of you ladies to invite me."

"...Kiba, fucking, Yuuto." I said, shaking my head. Kiba was easily one of the most, if not the most popular guys in school, every girl wants him, and every guy wants to be him and frankly, it's incredibly obnoxious. "Every time he comes along, he never ceases to make my ears want to hang themselves with all those fucking squeals he gets." I looked around, noticing a small stone on the ground, picking it up and launching it right at the smug bastard's head, a satisfying shout was heard as it smacked him in the side.

"...I know, right?" Issei hesitantly said, looking at me. "I don't get it!"

"Neither do I, Issei, neither do I." I said, holding my hand to my face and shaking my head once more. "Sometimes I feel like I'm the only girl with any sanity around here...Then again, I do have someone already so...that may have something to do with it." my pondering was ignored, as the other three began to yell about how Kiba was a piece of shit for being better than them and all, yadda yadda yadda, you know how it goes.

"He sucks so much less than we do..." Motohama stated in a defeated tone, holding his glasses onto his face.

"...Look on the bright side, I'm sure that one day, you guys will have girlfriends." I said, shaking my head slightly, fully expecting somebody to interupt me again. "Not that it'll be-"

"Speaking of chicks." Matsuda began, his voice sounding somewhat excited as he spoke, a smirk coming to his face. I growled a bit, getting sick of being interupted "I've gotta place to show you guys." he finished, the smirk becoming a grin as he gave us all a thumbs up. I sighed slightly, shaking my head a little more, smirking.

"Honestly you guys..." I began, standing up straight and putting my hands on my hips as I looked over the three of them. "I dread to think what kind of people you three are gonna be in a few years..." they all practically jumped out of their skin as I clapped my hands together, grinning. "...That aside, what's this thing you're wanting to show us, Matsuda?" Matsuda's grin grew wider as he heard that I was on board.

"You know where the Kendo Club's changing room is? Near the old school building?" he stated, looking damn proud of himself. Me, Issei and Motohama nodded, perverted looks on the faces of the other two. "_Well_..."

After a quick walk through the school grounds, we all found ourselves at a wall on the exterior of the old school building, where a small hole was bared into it.

"So, what's this then?" I asked, folding my arms. "Your glory hole or something?"

"God, I wish." Matsuda said, pointing at the hole. "I call it the _'Tit Hole'_!" he exclaimed, grinning widely as he enthusiastically pointed to the hole more, much to the rejoicing of Issei and Motohama. Before I could even get another word out, Matsuda and Motohama rushed over to the hole and began looking through it, shoving Issei out of the way.

"Hey! Come on, you guys! How am I meant to get a look when you two are hogging the hole?!" Issei whisper-yelled, shaking his fist at them angrily and glaring at them. The other two didn't hear him, they were to preoccupied with staring at the girls inside and drooling over their bodies, I simply sighed, sitting on the ground.

"Try to be more quiet, you three, you won't see many more tits if they notice you." is what I would have said, had I not been interupted yet again by the a sudden shout from Matsuda. "Oh, for god's sake..."

"Dude! Run!" without a second's hesitation, him and Motoyama rushed off at mach speed, not even leaving me and Issei time to react. Issei shouted as he fell on his ass in a comical fashion, glaring in the general direction that the other two ran off in.

"Did they just...Run off?" I said, my heart stopping as a slight smirk of amusement creeping onto my face. "Sheesh, I wonder why." Issei looked over at me, gritting his teeth slightly as I walked over, holding my hand out to him to help him up.

"How can you be so calm right now? We're gonna get caught!" Issei hissed, grabbing my hand and beginning to get to his feet.

"I know. And I'm just as panicked as you are." I said, trying my best to keep up the sarcastic outer shell, but then that was when I noticed that we had company.

"Well well, what a surprise..." upon looking up, we saw a brown haired girl, dressed in the kendo club's uniform, along with a dozen others, all standing there with their beating sticks.

_"Fuck."_

"Uh...We can explain." I stated, smiling nervously, stepping back as I let go of Issei's hand.

[One vigorous shinai beating and a regroup later.]

"Simply put, we got our asses handed to us a silver fucking platter." I growled, adjusting my slightly bent glasses as I stared at Matsuda and Motohama. "All because _you_ fucking left us there, you shitheads."

"Did either of you at least get to see some nip...?" Motohama stated, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"Fuck no!" I shouted furiously, slamming my hands down on the ground in front of me. "We got our asses handed to us! Did you not fucking hear me you dolts?!"

"Jesus, I've never seen Lyonette this angry before!" Motohama stated, shuffling back a bit, a look of slight intimidation on his face.

"Yeah! It's scaring me!" Matsuda agreed, following Motohama's example and backing up.

"In fact..." I stood up, cletching my fists and raising one at Motohama. "How about I beat the shit out of the pair of you and see if you get to see any nip!?" my face was going red with rage and my blood was boiling, all this was enough to practically make the two of them shit themselves.

"...Hey, who's that?" Issei suddenly said, forcing all eyes to follow where he was looking, a window in the old school building, with someone looking out of it. My rage gave way to awe as I looked at the girl in the window, long and flowing red hair, running counter to her crystal blue eyes, much of her body was obscured by the window's frame, but her very presence overflowed with class and dignity, she watched us for a moment, like a beautiful queen peering down at her subjects, and just as quickly as we saw her, in the blink of an eye, she walked off into the building, leaving me feeling a little woozy, my heart racing.

_"What was that just now? Why do I feel so damn weird all of a sudden!?"_ I thought to myself, my breathing seemingly getting a bit heavier.

"...Did you guys see that honey?" Matsuda commented, his voice now back to his chipper, excited tone. "Her sugar has got to be sweet!"

"That girl..." I muttered, holding my head, blinking a few times. "She was...beautiful." I felt all three boys' eyes on me, gazing at me in curiosity and shock, I looked up at them, in a slight daze.

"Lyo? Did you just...?" Issei began to ask, his voice quiet, almost a whisper.

"Dude...Is that why Lyo doesn't want to get with any of us? She's a lesbian!?" Matsuda practically shouted, getting even more excited than usual, as if he'd cracked some kind of code.

"No! No! I'm not a lesbian!" I yelled back, snapping out of my daze and shaking my head frantically, waving my hands dismissively, my face heating up. "C-can't a girl admire another girls looks? Sheesh..." I put my hands down and relaxed a slight bit, sighing.

"Girls do that?" Motohama said, looking between Issei, me and Matsuda.

"Well, duh!" I exclaimed, glaring at Motohama. "I thought you would've got that by now, what with me hanging out with you guys for years!" Motohama shook his hands around.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he whimpered, shuffling back even more than he already had.

"...No-one answered my question!" Issei stated, slapping his hands against his legs and leaning forward. "Who was that chick?" Motohama cleared his throat, recovering from being yelled at.

"...Her name's Rias Gremory." he began, smirking a little. "Thirty-six, Twen-"

"We don't need to know her measurements." I snapped, glaring at him once more. He cleared his throat again.

"U-um...Sh-she's the president of the occult research club...and according to people around school, she's from Northern Europe..." he finished, shaking a little with every word.

"Huh...Kind of like me, then." I said, beginning to smile a little as I thought about this Rias person.

_"Rias Gremory..."_ I thought to myself, sighing a bit. _"...A weird name, but...pretty in a way."_

"Hey...Lyonette? You walking home after school?" my mind snapped back to reality upon hearing Issei's voice, I blinked, looking at him.

"Uh...Yeah. Yeah I am." I replied, nodding a bit. "...That's what I normally do, isn't it?" Issei simply nodded in response, looking a little concerned.

_"I wonder if we'll see Rias again soon..."_ I thought to myself, before shaking my head and dismissing the thought, suddenly realising how much I was actually thinking about this girl.

_[Timeskip: After school.]_

"At this rate, jerking it to porn is going to be the closest I'll get to sex..." Issei said, sighing in defeat and he leaned against a railing, putting his hand on his head as he did so. I simply nodded in response, my elbow on the railing and my hand on my chin, looking out at the roadway beneath us, my mind wandering to different thoughts. "...Are you okay, Lyo? You look a bit out of it?" I blinked, looking at him.

"...Yeah. I'm fine." I shoved my thoughts to the back of my mind, putting on a smile. "...Anyway, you were saying?"

"...I'm probably not going to be able to screw any chicks before I go to college." he said, looking down at the cars below, sighing more. "Which me-"

"Erm...Excuse me?" a voice cut off Issei's sentance, a high pitched, feminine one, we both looked at the source, which was a girl, round about the same age as Issei and I, wearing an unidentifiable school uniform, straight black hair going down her body. She looked at us, rather, Issei, with a shy expression on her face. "...You're Issei Hyodou, from Kuoh Academy...Right? Or, am I wrong?" I blinked, my mouth agap for a moment, before I smiled and looked at Issei, who looked back at me as I stepped back, allowing him to be in front of me.

"Um...Yeah?" Issei said, his voice and face naught but pure confusion as he looked her up and down, God only knows what thoughts he was having.

"Hi, I, uh..." the girl hesitated, looking over at me, then back at Issei, seemingly tripping over her words, unable to find the right thing to say. Issei looked at me, I gave him a reassuring nod, trying to motivate him to say something back, he turned to look back at the girl.

"Hey, uh...Do you need help?" he asked, standing up straight and trying to stand as tall as he could.

"...Sorta..." the girl stated, running her fingers through her hair nervously. "I was going to ask you something...but, it looks like you're already seeing someone." she stated, looking over at me, frowning a slight bit.

"Hey, don't sweat it." I said, waving. "I'm not dating him or anything, I'm just a friend of his." the girl blinked, then looked back at Issei, seemingly preparing to say something.

"A-ah...That's wonderful!" she exclaimed quietly, smiling slightly with a nervous giggle. "I-in that case...Since you're single, would you like to go out with me?" I saw Issei stumble a bit at the mention of going out with this girl, if he were drinking anything, I guarentee he would have spat it out. I grinned and nodded at Issei, pleasantly surprised by this turn of events, at least...until I looked at the girl's face, the smile that she had had seemingly turned into somewhat of a smirk, but once I blinked, it seemed to be back to how it was before.

_"I must have been seeing things there..."_ I thought to myself, going back to paying attention to what was going on.

"G-go out with you...?" Issei quietly asked, his voice sounding full of confusion and surprise.

"I've been watching. You pass by here a lot, with your friend over there, and you seem so...gentle." she spoke, her voice practically a whisper as she stood up a bit straighter. "Y-you see, the thing is..." she cleared her throat, stealing a small glance at me, before breathing in and speaking once more. "I'd like for you to be my boyfriend!" I had to stop myself from squealing in delight as she asked the question, I looked at Issei, who's face was a picture of shock and joy.

_"He actually managed it, the brilliant bastard!" _my brain squeaked, a grin crossing my face as I giggled slightly.

"Issei." I said, grinning like a mad-woman, drawing his attention. "I'm going to head home, so...Have fun with your new girlfriend.~"

"Already..?" Issei asked, blinking, looking at me, I simply nodded.

"I don't want to ruin this magical moment, so I'll trust you to tell me about it tomorrow, alright?" I said, a slight giggle escaping me once more.

"...Okay. See you tomorrow, Lyonette!" he said, semi-enthusiastically, before looking back towards the girl. I ran off down the street, giggling more.

"He actually managed to get a girlfriend!" I shouted as I ran down the street, giggling and laughing like a lunatic, drawing the attention of a few people as I went.

For a time, I'd never been happier.

**Sorry if this is a weird place to end the chapter, but I noticed how long this had already gotten, and I didn't want to make it drag on for so long, so here you have it, chapter one! Hopefully it was what you wanted, and if it wasn't tell me how I can change it and improve! Chapter two is going to be released later on, where it should hopefully end episode one. While I'm at it, once again, thank you to Silver The Snow Wolf for helping me with this.  
**

**Next time on High School DxD: Queen Of Roses: Lyonette gets a proper introduction to Issei's new girlfriend, but winds up getting a bit more than she bargained for when she decides to snoop...**


	2. Red like roses

_CHAPTER TWO - Red like roses._

As I walked out of my house, one thing stood different to today, Issei hadn't come banging on my door, which either meant that he's still asleep, or he actually managed to get up on time for once, the latter being a thing I could relate to, as today, I'd done just that, and was currently walking to school. These were the first thoughts I had as I left the house, smiling, chipper and ready for a new day at school. After seeing what Issei managed to do yesterday, it renewed my faith in our little group of friends, specifically faith in the concept of them managing to grow up and have actual love lives, I felt like a proud mother thinking about her children growing up. But one thing still bothered me about the previous day...

_"Why did she just come out of nowhere and ask Issei out? She didn't introduce herself or anything, she just came up to us and started talking..." _I scratched the back of my head, stopping for a moment to think about it, I was so focused on my own thoughts that I didn't pay any attention to what was around me and almost instantly felt someone walk into the back of me.

"S-sorry..." I heard the person say, I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at them. The first thing I noticed was that she was wearing a dark grey cloak and hood, obscuring most of her face in the shade of the morning sun, the second thing I noticed was the uniform she wore, a Kuoh uniform.

_"That's odd... I've never seen anyone like her around school before..."_ I thought, looking at the girl as she stood there awkwardly.

"It's okay..." I reassured her, trying to sound as sympathetic as I could. Just as I was about to continue to speak, she walked by me, putting her head down and carrying her bag in front of her, her cloak brushing against the ground as she walked. I tilted my head, before beginning to walk again, getting lost in my thoughts once more. Before I knew it, I'd wound up fairly close to the school and noticed a group of people nearby.

"Guys, this is Yuuma Amano, my girlfriend!" I heard Issei state, followed by the disbelieving gasps of Matsuda and Motohama.

"Flaunting your new girlfriend already, Issei?~" I stated teasingly, running to the side of the group and putting my hands behind my back in a somewhat smug fashion.

"Oh, come on Lyonette, it's too early for this!" Issei complained, looking at me and frowning slightly. I looked over at Yuuma, grinning.

"Heya Yuuma, I'm Lyonette Griffin, Issei's best friend." I pointed over at the other two, smiling more. "and these two here are Matsuda and Motohama, our other friends!" I stated cheerfully, grinning a bit as I did so. Yuuma giggled slightly, looking at the three of us.

"It's nice to meet you all." she responded, happily, a smile on her face as she looked over us all.

"Ditto." I responded smiling brightly at her, trying to be as welcoming as possible. "And, don't mind the other two, outside of talking to me, they have no experience with girls."

"Hey! Quit talking about us like that!" Matsuda yelled at me, glaring hard in my direction.

"What? I'm right, aren't I?" I teased, giggling slightly as I looked over at Yuuma again, who simply smiled awkwardly. Issei rubbed the back of his head nervously, an unsure look on his face.

"Anyway...Come on, let's go Yuuma." he said, looking at her and smiling a little and walking past the two of them.

"'Kay." she replied with a small smile, bowing politely to the other two before following Issei. I simply grinned at the two of them as they left, giggling, before looking at Matsuda and Motohama.

"See? Told you that one of you three would find someone eventually.~" I nodded encouragingly at the two, who both had a similar look of betrayal on their faces. I giggled, beginning to walk past them. "Don't keep your faces like that for too long, otherwise they'll get stuck that way!~" with those words, I skipped after Issei and Yuuma, watching as they both parted ways near the school gates.

_"They're so adorable together." _I thought to myself, smiling and walking through the school gates. _"I'm happy for them."_

_[Timeskip: Break Time]_

As I packed up all of my belongings into my bag at the end of class, I felt my phone buzz as I was about to put it in my bag, I held it for a moment, opening it up and looking at it, a my a text notification was on my screen, my heart quickening as I looked at the name of the sender.

_"A text from Copper." _I smiled as I looked at the message, sighing a bit. _"He seems to be doing well over in America..."_ my fingers soon got to work in typing a message back, a small grin on my face. A thing that I'd been trying to tell Issei and the others for years was the fact that I had a boyfriend, a person who they know, too. His name is Copper P. Stone, and he went to the same school as us before Kuoh was opened to all genders, and the other three had met him quite a few times. Currently, he's in America as a transfer student, studying god-knows-what. A thing worth noting about Copper is that I've never met his family, besides one of his brothers, who's name is slipping my mind at the current moment. After typing out my text message and putting my phone away, I wandered out into the corridor, looking around absentmindedly, it was then that I noticed a familiar person, leaning against a wall, looking at her phone.

The cloaked girl was stood there, quietly doing something on her phone, her hood down slightly, revealing her eyes and a slight bit of her hair, which seemed to be long and messy, being of a ashy-brown colour, while her eyes were a greyish-blue. I walked over to her, staring at her for a moment.

"Hey...?" I said, trying to get her attention. The girl looked up from her phone, her eyes fixed on me.

"...Hello?" she responded, tilting her head. "...Can I help you?"

"Just being nosy. Since I don't think I've seen you around before..." I stated, clearing my throat awkwardly.

"Ah...I get that a lot." she smiled softly, standing up straight. "I don't really...do much, so I'm not exactly...noticed?" she seemed to think for a moment, before nodding. "Yes. Noticed, that's the best way I can put it."

"What's your name, anyway?" I asked curiously, folding my arms and tilting my head. The girl blinked, seemingly taken aback by the question.

"...Evie Harver." she said after a moment of hesitation, fidgeting a bit.

_"Her name doesn't ring any bells..."_ I thought to myself, an awkward silence befalling us both.

"Uh...My name's Lyonette. Griffin, Lyonette Griffin." I quietly stated, trying to break the awkwardness.

"Mmm...Griffin?" she asked, tilting her head to the left slightly. "That's a bit of a strange name..."

"Yeah...We're not from Japan originally...So, that's why it might sound weird." she nodded her head as I spoke, looking around.

"...Either way...I'm going to go now." Evie stated bluntly, fidgeting a bit more. "I've got things to do...

"...Fair enough." I responded, sighing and putting my arms to my sides, watching as she walked off.

_"Eh...Just one of the shy types, I guess."_ I thought to myself, shrugging my shoulders and walking off to go and find Issei and the other two, pushing the thought of the girl to the back of my mind for the time being, putting my phone in my bag and beginning to walk out from the school house, figuring that I may as well go and check at the old school building and see if they were all perving through the tit hole again. It didn't take all that long to find my way there. what with the path being somewhat linear, but upon reaching the tit hole, I found that there was no sign of Issei, just Matsuda and Motohama, crouched near the hole, grinning.

"Hey, you two? Y'know where Issei is?" I asked them, walking over slowly and tilting my head. They looked at me, seemingly worried at first, but returning back to neutrality as soon as they realised it was me.

"Oh, Lyo." Matsuda said, thinking for a moment. "Issei went to take a piss. He said he'd be back soon."

"Either that, or he's texting his girlfriend.." Motohama added spitefully, folding his arms and sighing. "Still can't believe he threw us under the bus like that..."

"Oh, quit whining Motohama." I growled, glaring at him and folding my arms. "This is why you don't have a girlfriend."

"Hey! Don't rub it in!" he responded, bursting into tears, leaning onto Matsuda, who simply patted his back uncomfortably.

_"And I thought I was emotionally unstable..." _I sighed, face-palming and shaking my head. _"Anyone would think that his dog died or something..." _I looked around for any sign of Issei coming back, or practically anything else that would distract me from what was currently going on, it was at this point that I noticed that the doors to the old school building were open, and judging by the lack of noise coming from the other two, they noticed her too. Walking out of it was the red-head from yesterday, the one who was looking at us out of the window.

"...Rias Gremory..." I muttered absentmindedly, struggling to remember her name for a moment. The class and grace she had yesterday hadn't faltered a bit, with even the way she walked making me feel like a peasant in her presence, compared to me, she had so much elegance and grace. I began to think, trying to figure out the emotion I was feeling. It wasn't love, hate or anything like that, if anything, I felt... Inferior, not in the whole 'She's more popular than me, so she's further up the social ladder' kind of way...I felt like a commoner in the presence of a monarch, or a mere mortal in the company of a god. I was so focused on thinking that I failed to realise the fact that she had drawn nearer, and was looking right at us.

"May I ask what you three are doing here?" she spoke, her voice mature and elegant, just how I imagined. "You do know that break's over soon, right?"

"Uh...Yeah, we know, miss Gremory..." I hesitantly said, twitching a little, trying to compose myself.

_"Why did I go all formal there? What the fuck?" _I mentally punched myself for suddenly pulling a Tylia, blinking rapidly. Rias looked at me, then at Matsuda and Motohama.

"You should all head off to the main school house then, since you'll be late if you don't." she stated in a semi commanding tone, one which caused me to practically jolt up and begin running away as quickly as I could, wanting nothing more than to get to class on time, lest I face Rias' wrath, or something.

_[Timeskip: After school, at home.]_

It's normally not too eventful at the dinner table in the Griffin household, with only a few talks happening from time to time over chicken and rice, but for some reason, Tylia seemed a bit more lively tonight.

"-And then I triumphantly stuck my shinai's tip against the floor and felt really proud my myself." she finished, after telling a long story about how she kicked some girl's ass during kendo club.

"Is that so?" my mother said, a happy smile on her face. "That's rather nice for you, dear."

"No-one quarrels with Tylia Griffin and gets away unscathed!" Tylia proudly exclaimed, grinning happily as she thrust her fist up into the air.

"I bet you really kicked her ass, eh sis?" I stated in a congratulatory tone, smiling at my sister, who simply glared at me coldly.

"I don't recall asking you, Lyonette." she growled, an angered look on her face. My mother frowned, looking at Tylia.

"No need to be so rude, Tylia! She was only trying to get involved in the conversation!" she snapped, putting her hand on her hip and staring at her. I sighed, simply going back to eating my food while Tylia scoffed and growled. My mother looked at me, sighing and smiling as best as she could. "Anyway...How was your day, Lyonette?" I blinked, swallowing my food and putting my fork down.

"It's been...Okay. I wound up falling asleep in class for the last lesson but...I also found out that Issei's going on a date with his girlfriend on Sunday."

"Oh?" my mother smiled a little bit, looking intrigued. "Issei finally found someone, did he?"

"A surprise, considering how much of a pervert he is..." Tylia scornfully stated, folding her arms and taking a bite out of her chicken.

"Yeah. Her name's Yuuma, she asked him out yesterday." I stated, a proud smile on my face as I spoke. Tylia's jaw dropped, blinking her green eyes rapidly.

"What?! Who in their right mind would court Issei?!" she exclaimed, slamming her hands on the table, looking furious and confused. "What fell sorcery is this?!" I simply shrugged, looking around at them both.

"I dunno. She just came up to him yesterday and asked him out on a date." I replied, sighing slightly. "I know, it's as weird to me as it is to you..." My mother seemed to think for a moment, making a small 'hmm' noise as she did so.

"I'd be cautious of this Yuuma girl." she stated, looking at me with a serious expression. "She may be after something, so it's best to be aware of her."

"I know." I nodded in agreement, sighing slightly, readying myself for the stranger danger lecture. "I have been, mom."

"Good." she replied, smiling in a slightly worried way. "I'd hate for this girl to do something bad to you two."

It didn't take long for me to finish my food, after all, I hadn't had anything to eat for the whole day, after talking with my sister and mom a bit more, I went upstairs to my room, deciding to just lay in bed and read for a bit.

_"Sunday..." _I began to think to myself, picking up a book off of my shelf and opening it. _"I wonder what I'll be doing on that day..."_

[Timeskip: Sunday afternoon.]

"Where's my clothes?" I complained to myself, looking around my room, covering myself with the duvet of my bed. "I swear I set them out last night..." I sighed as I walked over to my closet, giving up on attempting to find the clothes I set out, pulling the first things I could find out and throwing them on my bed, looking at them.

_"Hm...This could work."_ I thought to myself, picking up the red shirt my aunt got me for my birthday, smiling a bit. I put it back down on my bed and went over to my dresser, opening the top drawer and taking a fresh set of underwear out of it, slipping my bra and panties on and beginning to put on the rest of my clothes. I smiled at myself in the mirror as I slipped my black jacket on, buttoning up the bottom two buttons and adjusting my shirt, straightening my skirt before sitting down on my bed and humming while I put my socks on, slipping them up my legs and releasing them around my thighs, then picked up my boots and slipped them on. I hopped up, looking at myself in the mirror again, smiling and giggling a bit. _"This is probably going to draw a slight bit of attention...But hey, at least I feel cute.~" _I went over to my door and went outside, going past Tylia's room, where the loud grunting of her 'training' could be heard inside.

"Where are you going, Lyonette?" I heard my mother ask as I passed through the living room, causing me to turn to look at her, seeing the curious expression on her face.

"Just... Going out. Going to the arcade and stuff like that." I responded, trying to think of things to do outside, as normally I'd be at Issei's house doing things on this particular day. "Not much else, really."

"...Okay then. Be safe." my mother softly said, a calm smile crossing her face as she went back to do what she was doing before. I smiled back at her, quietly stepping out of the house and skipping into town. I wandered around, the sound of the townfolk talking and the noise of cars driving by being reminders that yes, I was out in the town, the smell of food from nearby restaurants and cafés making me ever so slightly hungry, the cool breeze which blew gently making me feel a slight bit more welcome, my waltz remained uninterrupted, until...

"Here, take a flyer." the happy go-lucky voice of a girl stated, as a small flyer was thrust into my hands, I blinked, looking at the person who gave it to me, seeing a woman, dressed in gothic clothing, similar to something that some kind of anime girl would wear, along with a pair of false bat wings on her back.

"Uh...Thanks?" I slowly walked past her, looking at the flyer she handed me. The flyer was printed on brown paper, with a picture of some kind of red magic circle printed on it, I shoved it into my pocket, not really wanting to bother with it for the moment, figuring that I shouldn't think about it for the time being. I continued on my merry way, or, at least I would have if I hadn't bumped into another person.

"S-sorry..." I heard the person say, her voice sounding slightly familiar. I looked up at her, realising that it was non-other than Evie, the girl who I met a few days previously, dressed in a black hoodie and grey joggers, carrying a large box with the word 'Tower' engraved in the top by a small handle coming from it. "..Oh, it's you again...Ech... Lyonette, isn't it?"

"...Uh...Yeah." I replied, blinking, not sure what to say or do. "... What's with the box...?" Evie looked down at the box, tightening her grip in it a little.

"Oh...Um...I was just heading up to the tabletop shop with some models I painted..." she responded, standing up a little straighter and looking around. "Just so I could go in and play a few games and stuff..."

"Tabletop shop?" I asked, tilting my head and looking her in the eyes. I'd never heard of such a thing, at first I thought she meant some kind of furniture shop, but when she mentioned models and games, I got confused.

"Y-yeah...You know, stuff like Labyrinths & Leviathans, Battlemace and stuff like that?" she said, her eyes seemingly sparkling a little bit when I asked. "I-if you want, I can take you there and show you!" her expression seemed to brighten a bit as she smiled at me quietly.

"...Sure?" I responded, slightly unsure about it. Evie grinned a little and grabbed my arm, beginning to walk down the street with me in tow. "H-hey! Wait a second-"

It wasn't long before we arrived at the shop, a rather small one, built into the street's corner, with a banner over the top that read 'Black-Flag Games'. Evie seemed to happily waltz in, a spring in her step as she did so. I shrugged and sighed, stepping in after her. The shop seemed rather small, but we'll maintained, a counter next to the door, with no-one behind it, a small display case with a series of models in front of the window, giving the place a bit of decoration, the sides of the shop were lined with shelves, with various colorful boxes on them, along with a rack of paints and brushes. In the middle of the shop, there were around three tables, each was relatively large and had some kind of decorative board on top, along with a metric fuck ton of plastic scenery, people were hunched over the tables, seemingly moving small models around and rolling dice.

"...Is this it?" I asked Evie, who was looking around the area like a child in a toy store. "Just...a place for nerds to play shit?" Evie looked at me, her eyes widening.

"He-hey... It's what we enjoy doing, don't knock us for it." she said, frowning a slight bit.

"Afternoon, Evie!" I heard somebody shout over from one of the tables, followed by the sound of footsteps. A young man, seemingly in his early twenties, walked over, wearing a shirt with the shop's name on it, he looked at me, then back at Evie. "Who's this you've brought? Where's Audrey today?"

"Ah...This is Lyonette, she's an acquaintance from school I wanted to bring in here." Evie said, looking at me, then back at the guy. "And... Audrey's been sick, so she hasn't been able to come with me."

"Eh, it happens." the guy said, rubbing the back of his head and shrugging, before looking back at me. "Either way, feel free to look around, Lyonette!"

"Uh...Sure?" I replied, looking at him, then at Evie, before walking off to one of the shelves. I wandered over to the first set of shelves, lined with Tower branded paints and brushes, along with a bunch of boxes with the branding of Battlemace: Era Of Seymour on them, each one showing some nicely painted models of some weird looking knight guys with funny looking maces.

"Seeing anything you like, Lyonette?" I heard Evie ask, startling me slightly, since she appeared out of butt-fuck nowhere.

"...No, I've only just started looking." I said quietly, looking at her and folding my arms. Evie sighed a little, looking down.

"... I'm sorry..." she said, going over to one of the tables and opening the box she had with her. I decided to go over and see what was actually in the damn thing. I looked over her shoulder, seeing that the whole box had a crap ton of acoustic foam in it, in between the small holes in the foam, there were little models of soldiers donning grey, spiky armor, which Evie was slowly taking out.

"... What's all these then?" I asked, looking at the small figurines curiously. Evie looked at me, smiling a little.

"These are the models I was on about." she stated, holding one up for me to look at. The damn thing was tiny, like, the height of my pinky finger, yet there were little bits of detail on the gun and the armor that I could barely see which seemed to be painted.

"How the fuck do you even paint that? It's tiny." I asked, genuinely confused. Evie shrugged, smiling a bit more.

"I have no idea!" she said, giggling slightly. "It took me ages, so...At least someone's impressed!" she looked back at the table, putting all of her models down on the table, before putting a small box, a tape measure and a small pouch near them. "Just need to wait to see if someone wants to play with me."

"...You play with these things?" I asked, blinking and sighing a bit. Evie looked at me, nodding.

"Yes, it's actually quite fun." she smiled at me a bit more. "You can watch me, if you want." I sighed, folding my arms and nodding.

"Sure..." I said, looking at the table, then back at her. "I'll watch you play with your little toys."

And so, that's how I spent the rest of the afternoon, watching Evie play a needlessly complex game with some little models and lose miserably. I couldn't figure out what was so fun about it, but both Evie and the fat neckbeard she played against seemed to enjoy themselves, even if the guy was an ass about his 'victory' and was needlessly sexist. Eventually, I decided to leave, since it was getting dark, so after saying goodbye to everyone, I left to go home.

_"I wonder how Issei and Yuuma have been doing..."_ I thought to myself, walking down the street, into the town's further back area, where I normally cut through to get home. Just as I was about to pass the water fountain that was nearby, I heard Yuuma's voice speaking.

"Can I ask you a question?" upon hearing the girl's voice, I squeaked quietly, running and diving into a nearby bush and peeking up to watch the moment unfold. Issei and Yuuma were both there, in front of the fountain, Yuuma with her hands behind her back, and Issei standing a few feet in front of her. "In honour of our first date, there's something I'd like you to do." I smiled brightly as I watched Yuuma slowly approach Issei, who looked flustered beyond belief. "To commemorate this special moment.~"

_"Come on Issei! You got it!"_ I silently cheered my friend on, grinning happily. Yuuma bowed politely to Issei, as he looked down at her, gulping and speaking.

"Sure! You can ask me for anything at all." Issei said with an air of semi-confidence, a confused smile on his face. I really, _really_ wanted to squeal like a fan-girl at that moment, my best friend, finally managing to kiss his first girlfriend was no small occasion, after all. Yuuma seemed to look up at him, an unsettling smirk crossing her face.

"...Would you die for me?~" she asked him, her voice sounding less loving and romantic, and more mocking and sarcastic. Issei seemed to tense up at this, and my jaw fell open.

"W-what?" me and Issei both muttered in unison, my heart beginning to sink slightly. Yuuma stepped closer to Issei, still holding her bag behind her back.

"I want you to die for me." she stated in a stern, yet playful tone. She then began to cackle, not laugh, _cackle_, her clothing seemingly beginning to tear and morph as a pair of black wings sprouted from her back, the very air around us beginning to take an unholy, sickly purple glow as she stood there, her clothing now naught but slutty straps barely covering anything. My eyes widened as I looked at the sight before me, as Issei fell onto his backside.

**_"...The fallen one is here, Lyonette."_** I heard a voice, completely unlike my own, echo around my mind as I watched everything in front of me unfold.

"Well, I have to admit! I did have some fun today.~" Yuuma stated scathingly, staring right at Issei, a grin on her face. "Considering how naïve and childish you are, things could have gone much, much worse."

**_"Are you just going to sit there?" _**the voice in my head implored, my arm beginning to burn, I grunted silently, holding my arm.

"Thank you for the gift, by the way. Very sweet.~" she backhandedly complimented, looking at the small scrunchie on her wrist. "...Even so." a spear of light was suddenly formed in her outstretched hand, her smirk deepening as she held it aloft.

"Yuuma, wait, please-!"

"It's time to die!" before I could even blink, the girl plunged the spear of light into Issei's heart, a gutteral choking groan coming from him. I gasped sharply, freezing up.

**_"Do you see what she's done to your friend, Lyonette?"_**

My heart began to race, as my arm began blackening.

_**"Do you see how coldly she put him down?"**_

I clenched my teeth, my blood practically boiling in rage, my heartbeat quickening to Mach speed.

**_"Stand!"_**

I stood up slowly, an unnatural growl escaping my throat, I felt so primal, so...savage. But it didn't matter. Non of it mattered. My best friend was killed at the hands of this horrid creature without respite. She turned to look at me, her expression turning to that of confusion.

_**"Fall upon your enemy! Show her the same mercy she showed your friend!"**_

I felt my arm's burning cease, and my mind finally break under the rage I was feeling, I charged at the girl, snarling like a wild animal, only one intelligeable word escaping me, in the form of a sorrowful shriek.

_**"ISSEI!"**_

The woman gave a squeak of surprise as I slammed into her, knocking her over, her wings wildly flapping for a moment in an attempt to correct herself, but ultimately failing, slowly getting back up.

"What-?! Where the hell did you come from?!" she looked down at my arm, her face going pale. "And...Is that a Sacred Gear? What even-?" her musing was cut off as I delivered a brutal hook to her face, a loud shout of pain coming from her. The woman recoiled for a moment, before sneering and summoning another spear of light. "No matter! I'll slaughter you, just like I did with your friend!"

"BE QUIET!" I screamed, practically throwing myself into her, socking her in the face again. "SHUT UP AND FUCKING DIE, BITCH!" the woman yelped out as I attacked her, eventually pushing me off her and onto my back, she slowly approached me, stamping on my pitch black right arm, leering at me.

"God...Ever since I met you and Issei on that bridge, I knew you'd be a little thorn in my side!" she held her spear aloft, pointing it at my heart. I growled at her, screeching in pain as she stamped on my stomach, holding me down so I couldn't move. "This is the end of the line, Lyonette!" and all it took was a simple movement of her arm, and the pain began.

I've felt this pain before, haven't I? This horrid sensation, akin to having a hot iron dragged across an open wound. It feels so familiar, yet...I cannot recall when I last felt it. I cannot recall the last time that a wound burned so much, but I feel like I should. I feel like I should remember the first time I nearly died, the last time I was left for dead like this, but I cannot remember at all. I was going to die here, I was going to die for trying to save my best friend...And it wasn't even worth it. The woman backed away from me, her scowl turning to a smirk in a matter of seconds.

"Aww...Did you see that, Issei? Your little friend came to help you!" the scathing, mocking voice of my murderer- no, our murderer remarked, grinning over at the crippled corpse behind me, the one which was out of my vision, but I could perceive non-the less. "...Shame she didn't get very far, but it's the thought that counts, I suppose.~" I slowly managed to rise to my knees, glaring daggers at the woman.

How I wanted to do something. How I wanted to get up from my knees and rip her to shreds, just to see this black winged menace crying for mercy...But I couldn't. Just like I was too slow to save my friend, I was too weak to save myself, even if I could move and fight more, my hopes of that were dashed as she took off into the sky, out of sight. I shuddered, craning my head to look at Issei's impaled corpse...And that's when I saw her.

Red hair, red like the blood spewing out of my doomed body, red like the roses that my mother would adorn my hair with when I was a child...

Red like my sight, when thinking about what started all this...

I clutch my now burning right arm, staring at her, staring at her as she looked down at Issei, her back to me.

_"Where did she come from...?"_ I thought to myself, my brain starting to go sluggish from bloodloss.

"Since death is upon you, I will gladly take you in." she began to say to Issei, a pair of large bat-like wings springing from her back, wafting a small gale of wind around the area as my eyes widened. "From this moment forward...You will live your life for my sake."

My brain couldn't properly process what I was hearing or what was going on, all I could gather was that someone was here, and that someone was Rias.

"...R-Rias..." I croaked, my voice just loud enough to draw her attention, her eyes widening as she noticed me.

With that last word uttered, I slowly fell onto my front, a red pool beginning to form around me, staring at my blackened arm, which slowly went back to it's normal colour...

_"It's over..."_

**Welp. 10,000+ words in and we still haven't finished episode one. This is going to be a long story...**

**Either way, next chapter, Lyonette will find out what's actually gone on, and why Rias was there as her and Issei lay dying...But, let's face it, we all know why she was there.~**


	3. That damn girl

_CHAPTER THREE - That damn girl..._

_[Perspective of: Rias Gremory]_

_I thought this would be easier. I thought it would just be as quick as swooping in, reincarnating the boy, taking him back to his home and filling him in on what happened later. But when I realised that she was there too, and was dying with him, I felt my heart sink._

_"Why is she here too?" I thought to myself, looking at the bespectacled blonde girl bleeding out in front of me, the exact same one which I'd been told to keep an eye on. "Damn it...I make one damn promise, and I can't even keep it!" I panicked a slight bit, trying to figure out what to do in this situation, before dragging her over to where Issei lay, sighing and looking down at them both, my gaze falling to the blonde, who appeared to have her right hand clenched, some kind of strange aura emanating from her, as if she'd just expended a fair bit of magical energy. "... She's...A Sacred Gear user too?" I couldn't help but muse over this for a short moment, temporarily forgetting the urgency of the situation. "...Perhaps...It would be best if I brought them both back at the same time..." I slowly took out two chess pieces, one, a pawn, ornamented with red, with my family's emblem carved on, placing it on Issei's chest, while the other..._

_"I'll give you this, just in case worst comes to worst while I'm gone." he'd said to me when he gave me the piece, carrying a suitcase and a bag full of school supplies. "...If Lyo's alive by the time I come back, I'll do all I can to help you get out of this mess you're in."_

_"...I don't think this is allowed..." I said, placing the crowned piece upon the girl's chest, the orange markings on it seemingly glowing slightly. "...But, if it means that he'll fulfil his end of the deal...Then I'll do it." I sighed, looking down at the two, a red circle appearing around them as I focused. "...Here goes nothing."_

"Rias?" I snapped out of my thoughts about the previous night, looking up at the black haired girl standing over me with a worried look on her face. "Are you alright?" she continued, tilting her head slightly.

"...I'm fine, Akeno." I stated, waving my hand dismissively. "Just...reflecting on what happened last night."

"You managed to bring Issei back, right? What's wrong?" Akeno responded, her worry changing to curiousity.

"Yes. I did." I replied, folding my arms, putting one of my hands on my chin. "But...I'm more worried about what happened to the girl. Lyonette."

"Lyonette? You mean Lyonette Griffin? That girl who's always hanging around with Issei and those other two?" I nodded in response, sighing slightly.

"I promised that I'd keep and eye on her while he was away, to make sure nothing bad happened to her, then the next thing I know, just as I'm beginning to feel as if nothing can go wrong, she winds up getting killed by one of the Fallen." I explained, standing up and going over to the window, looking out of it thoughtfully. "So, I had to bring her back, too." Akeno's eyes widened as she looked at me, walking to my side.

"...What piece did you bring her back as? Or, did you simply bring her back as a stray?"

I paused for a moment, closing my eyes and sighing. "I'd rather not say."

"...So, what are you going to do about it?" Akeno asked, looking out of the window with me. "Are you going to tell them about what they are now and what you are?"

"Yes." I responded bluntly, opening my eyes, gazing out over the campus of the school. "...I'm going to have to, aren't I?"

_[Perspective of: Lyonette Griffin]_

"C'mon guys, do you seriously not remember meeting Yuuma?" Issei asked, disbelief clear in his voice as he looked at me, Matsuda and Motohama. This morning had been a strange one. I felt tired and drained, even more so than usual, my mom even considered keeping me off school for the day to try and figure out what was wrong with me, but I could vaguely remember the events of the previous day, or, so I thought.

_"It must have been a dream." _my mother had said, unsure of what I was talking about when I was on about going to the fountain. _"You came home by that time and just went to bed."_

"Nope! Name's not ringing any bells." Matsuda responded, his hands behind the back of his head as he leaned against the wall.

"For the last time, you never introduced us to a chick, and it's impossible that you have a girlfriend." Motohama added, sitting on the top of the stair landing near us, his hand on the bottom of his chin.

"I think I remember...Kind of." I responded, sitting on the railing with my hands gripping it. "Either that, or we both had the same dream." all three of them looked at me, Issei's eyes lighting up a bit, before looking at the other two.

"See? Lyo remembers her!" Issei stated, blinking and looking at the other two with an 'I told you so' look on his face.

"Hey, it's possible that it was a really lucid dream we both had." I stated, still not 100% sure on that theory myself.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" he responded, pulling his phone out and opening it up. "Her e-mail address is right _here_!" he messed around with his phone for a moment, pressing buttons and searching as his eyes widened in shock. "...No way. Yuuma's contact information is not in my phone..."

"Like Lyo said, it was prolly just a really weird dream you both had." Matsuda said, putting his arms down and looking at me.

"It can't have been..." Issei quietly said in disbelief, slowly looking up, his eyes then widening. I looked up to the top of the stairs, to see non-other than little miss red-head herself, looking down at us, specifically me and Issei.

"Big boobies, twelve o'clock!" Matusda whispered, looking up at Rias in conjuction with me, Issei and Motohama. I could hear the sound of many girls, talking amongst themselves as Rias walked down the stairs, slowly guiding herself down with her hand on the railing, moving away from it as she passed me, smiling at Issei, continuing down the stairwell.

"...Filing that image away for later," Matsuda began, seemingly about to speak more, before I interupted him.

"Could you guys give me about five minutes?" I asked suddenly, looking down the stairs at Rias, before looking back at them. "I just need to go do something really quick." I didn't even wait for a response before rushing off, my brain just wanting to follow Rias, as I had a _lot_ of questions. I wasn't like Issei, where he'd just stand around thinking about if she knew something, one thing I remember is that she was there when that thing had happened the previous night, and if it wasn't a dream, and she knew something, I was damn well going to find out.

"Ria-M-Miss Gremory!" I stutter-shouted, running after her, seemingly taking her by surprise as she turned around to look at me.

"Hm? What's up?" she asked, looking at me as I approached, putting her hand on her hip.

"U-um..." I thought for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to casually ask about the situation and not sound like a lunatic. "...W-was that you I saw in town, yesterday evening? Near the park? Or, in it, rather?" I mentally congratulated myself for managing to figure out a way to not sound crazy. Rias seemed to look confused for a moment, but then seemed to think.

"...Probably, since I do tend to go there rather often." she said, looking around at everyone, then suddenly giving me a discrete wink, as if she was telling me that she was trying to keep some kind of secret. My heart lept as a small smile crossed my face.

_"So she does know something! Or, at least, she's just playing along."_

"...U-uh...Right! That's all I wanted to know." I stated, turning around and running back to the other three on the stairs, where they still were, standing around, talking, I hopped up to them, looking at them all. "Hey, did I miss anything?" Matsuda looked at me, grinning.

"We've arranged that we're going over to my house after school to watch some of my DVD collection." he said with a grin, Motohama seemed to have the same expression, while Issei looked...Troubled, to say the least.

"...That sounds good." I said, feigning a smile and standing next to Issei.

_"Maybe watching some stuff will take my mind off all this stuff..." _I quietly pondered, my chest raising a bit as I breathed in and sighed.

"Hell yeah! The gang'll all be there!" Matsuda exclaimed, thrusting his fist into the air triumphantly, much to the confusion and slight disgust of the girls around us.

"And maybe we can all get laid..." Motohama said, smiling pervertedly over at me. I glared at him and shook my head.

"Don't even entertain the thought, Motohama."

_[Timeskip: After School]_

As we left the school grounds, I couldn't help but think about what had happened last night, and how if it was all a dream, it was a really lucid one, even down to me feeling a slight pain in my chest as I woke up.

"Hey, Lyo, you alright?" I heard Issei ask, looking at me worriedly, still walking after the other two. "... Thinking about last night?" I slowly nodded, sighing a little.

"Yes... Surely you remember what happened, right?" I asked, looking back at him, my heart lifting a little as he smiled at me.

"Yeah! I-"

"Hey! Pick it up, you two!" Matsuda shouted over at us impatiently, continuing onward.

"...We can talk about this later..." I said to Issei, smiling at him. "We'll get this figured out, one way or another." Issei sighed and nodded, scratching the back of his head.

"I sure hope so..." he replied, looking over at the other two, then began sprinting after them. I looked down at the ground, continuing to walk, sighing.

_"I hope so too..."_ I thought to myself, beginning to follow the other three at a similar pace. It wasn't long before we reached Matsuda's house, all of us beginning to go up the stairs, the sound of the TV being switched on and a video being played before I entered the room.

The scent of musk and repressed sexual tension was all I could smell as I entered Matsuda's room, with the only sound being the sound of the video on the TV, and the sight I saw being that of Matsuda stood near the TV, adjusting some things on it, Motohama and Issei both being sat down, watching the TV in this small, messy, cramped room. Issei was looking at the floor, looking somewhat out of it and uninterested in what was being put on the TV.

"Yo, Lyo! What took you so long?" Matsuda said, looking at me with a grin on his face.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, sitting down next to Issei and crossing my arms. "I got here at the same time as the rest of you."

"A little later, actually." Motohama corrected me, his gaze not shifting from the TV. I rolled my eyes, looking at the TV, which showed a scantily clad woman, doing various things and getting into compromising positions, the whole thing being done like some kind of magical girl anime. I rolled my eyes once more, slowly letting my mind wander in the topic of other things.

_"Sheesh...I have no idea why my dream had Rias in it..." _I blinked, pondering over this for a moment. _"...I gotta stop thinking about her. I don't care why it is that I'm doing this, it's unhealthy."_

"Not to interrupt you guys or anything, but... Lyonette? Why'd you rush after Rias earlier?" Issei asked me, looking over at me curiously. Motohama seemed to grin a bit.

"I don't know why she did it, but I'm going to guess that she has a crush on her or something." he stated, seemingly stopping to think about it for a moment, drooling slightly.

"Yeah? Lyo's a lesbian, ain't she?" Matsuda said, looking away from the TV and diverting his sight to the three of us.

"For the second and last time, I am _not_ a lesbian." I stated sternly, folding my arms and glaring at Matsuda. "I'm not going to say this again, I have a-"

"Yeah, right!" Matsuda interrupted, glaring back with a slightly grin on his face. "You're totally a lesbian! Don't think we haven't noticed the way you've been lookin' at the red-head, not to mention the fact that I saw you walking around with a chick yesterday!"

"Wait, she was on a date yesterday?!" Motohama said, suddenly looking away from the TV and looking at me. "Is that true, Lyo?!" I blinked, straining to think of what actually happened yesterday.

"...No. She was just kind of dragging me with her as we went. It wasn't a date or anything." I corrected them, trying to recover as much as I could, my face red with embarrassment, making me look even more suspicious. "We were just...hanging out? Kind of?"

_"So, the shit with Evie wasn't a dream..." _I thought to myself, pursing my lips slightly and sighing.

"The look on your face is sayin' otherwise!" Matsuda said, laughing a bit, looking at the other two, looking back at me. "So, who was that chick?"

"...Her name's Evie. She goes to our school." I stated, slightly fearful that now that they knew this information about her, they'd start harassing her about it. Motohama and Matsuda gasped, grinning ear to ear.

"... Aren't we meant to be watching this?" Issei said, looking at all of us, still looking a little tired and out of it. Motohama turned to the TV, where things seemed to be getting lewder on the video, as the girl was being groped by some kind of monster.

"I'm just gonna...Turn the light off.~" Motohama said with a chuckle in his voice. "It's too bright in here, I can't concentrate." this was followed by the click of the light being turned off...But, despite the light being off, I could see just fine, albeit, the light was dim. Even the parts of the room where the light and the TV's light couldn't reach seemed lit to a degree, allowing me to see a fair bit in the room.

_"What the hell? The lights are off, right?" _I wondered, looking around frantically, trying to figure out what was going on. "...What the fuck? Motohama, you turned the lights off, right?"

"Yeah. I did." Motohama reponded, not looking away from the TV as he spoke.

"You sure? They're still on... Aren't they?" Issei said, looking around, seemingly having just as much of a hard time as me as to figuring out what was happening.

"Wait, what did you just say?" Motohama asked, finally looking away from the TV, Matsuda following suit, both of them with confused looks on their faces. I soon realised something about the 'light', it seemed to be extra bright around areas where light was most visible, such as the TV, which lead me to a revalation.

_"This light...I can't see it, but I can...Feel it? It feels..." _I clutched my head, grunting a little, looking at the other three, who looked a mixture of concerned and confused.

"You okay, Lyo?" Matsuda asked, looking slightly concerned as I stood up, grabbing my bag and sighing.

"I'm fine...My eyes are just being a little funny..." I stated, trying to come up with a good excuse for why I was suddenly standing up with the intention of leaving. "... I'm just... Going to go home, I feel a little sick." I slowly began to move towards the door, opening it, before waving at the three, walking out. I trudged down the stairs and out of the house, walking out into the street, looking around.

_"What the hell is going on with me right now? Why do I feel so weird all of a sudden?"_

"Lyo?" I heard somebody say my nickname, a voice I immediately recognised as Issei's. I turned to look at him, still holding my head.

"You're leaving too?" I asked, blinking and taking my hand off my head, watching as he approached me.

"...Yeah." he stated simply, looking a bit concerned and worried as he looked at me. "...You were on about what happened last night, right? Earlier, I mean." I tilted my head for a moment, struggling to remember what he was talking about for a moment.

"Yeah...Do you remember?" I asked, nodding and smiling a bit, glad that we could finally try and compare our experiences to see if it was a dream.

"Yeah! I was on my date with Yuuma and things went really well, but then she..." he seemed to think for a moment, looking at his body. "...Killed me. But, I'm alive, somehow." I nodded, remembering about where we were at the time all of a sudden.

"I remember coming out of the tabletop shop after being dragged in there by a girl who comes to our school, finding you and Yuuma at that fountain, then I wound up..." I struggled to remember what happened after that, it all seemed like a blur to me, as if there was a gap in my memory. "...I don't know. The last thing I remember was bleeding out on the ground, before I blacked out..."

"You said the fountain, right?" Issei responded, smiling a bit. "Why don't we go there? Maybe we might find Yuuma there and get some answers out of her..." I winced at the idea, thinking of all the things that were wrong with it.

_"She'd probably kill us again..." _I folded my arms and thought, sighing slightly. _"...But, I suppose it's the only thing we can do."_

"We might as well." I agreed, standing up straight and unfolding my arms. "It's our best bet at the moment." Issei rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Alright! Let's get this show on the road!" he exclaimed, beginning to walk, looking around at his surroundings, seemingly a bit overwhelmed. "...If I don't wind up passing out, that is."

"Yeah...Same." I responded, following him closely, a mixture of excitement and dread causing my heart to beat a little quicker. Issei looked around, looking at his hands and blinking.

"...I don't know what's going on...My eyes are being weird, and I feel like a totally different person." he said, a slight bit of confusion in his voice as he looked around more, seemingly trying to sort out his eyes.

"I know, right? Do you think it's to do with last night?" I asked, folding my arms and looking around myself, taking off my glasses and blinking a bit, before putting them back on.

"Yeah! Definetely!" Issei responded, looking over at me, blinking, trying to focus his vision properly. We continued walking in the direction of the fountain, finally arriving in the area where we wanted to be, the area was dark and fairly gloomy, a menacing energy being present everywhere around us, my legs beginning to tremble a little bit.

_"...Something bad is going to happen, isn't it?"_ I predicted, shifting my gaze to the area behind us, my paranoia not settling at all, even as I bore witness to nothing but an empty path.

"So...It wasn't a dream." Issei said, walking over to the fountain, rubbing his hand on the rim of it, his mouth agape in shock. "...It really happened."

"I know. What gave you the idea that it _didn't_?" I stated, turning to look at him, folding my arms. "Even when my mom told me that it was just a dream, I didn't believe her." Issei simply stared into the fountain, not speaking another word. I felt a feeling of dread shoot down my spine, and judging by the look on his face, so did Issei.

"I fucking knew it!" I yelled, doing a full turn to look behind us, where a man in a trenchcoat and hat stood, watching us with an unreadable expression.

"...Well, isn't this unfortunate." the man said, a hint of mockery in his voice as he slowly approached us, his prescence becoming more and more intimidating the closer he got. "...Running into two of you at once? Quite lucky for me, to be frank." he stopped, glaring at us, a small smirk appearing on his face.

"...W-what do you want, you L.A Noir looking headass?" I stuttered out, stepping back a bit, clentching my fists in an attempt at being intimidating. The clacking of a pair of shoes hitting the floor was heard from behind me, which caught my attention, where I saw Issei had jumped a mile, literally. He was stood on the other side of the park, looking freaked out. The man sighed a bit, drawing my attention back to him, as he scowled at me.

"...It looks like your friend doesn't want anything to do with this..." he said, looking over at Issei, before back at me. "It seems like your master isn't around...It's just the two of you...With neither of you using any magic, or anything."

_"Master? Magic? What kind of drugs is this fucker on?"_

"Therefore, I'm going to assume that you're both nothing but strays! Am I correct?" he said, a pair of black wings sprouting from his back, putting his arm out to his side, with what appeared to be some kind of spear manifesting in his hand, made entirely out of some kind of light energy, similar to the spear Issei was stabbed with. "Therefore, killing you both won't make any difference!" I slowly began to back away, trying to muster up enough courage to talk trash at him, or try and fight him in some way, but I had nothing, before I knew it, I had turned tail, fleeing towards Issei, who seemed to realise what was going on and began running too. Black feathers fell upon us as the man, or, whatever he was, flew over our heads, landing in front of us, blocking us off from going any further.

"...Such cowardice. As to be expected from lower class beings like yourselves!" he said, yelling as he hurled the spear at Issei, time seemed to slow down as I remembered what had happened the previous night, when Issei was impaled through the heart with the same sort of spear, how Yuuma had done it with such cruelness and disregard. But this guy seemed different, he had no mocking in his voice, nor did he seemed to be enjoying what he was doing, if anything, he looked annoyed, almost as if this was his job, rather than a hobby. I lunged at Issei, knocking him out of the way of the spear as it dug into my flesh, a shriek of pain escaping me as it burned, like a wound that had salt poured into it, I tried to pull the spear out, another shout sounding around the area as my hand began to burn the same, tears rolling down my face. Issei gasped, looking at me, his eyes wide.

"Lyonette!" he shouted as he watched me lay there, my leg a bloody mess and my hand searing in horrible pain.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" the man stated, slowly walking over and tearing the spear from my leg, a feeling of slight relief washing over me as the pain began to subside slightly. "Light is toxic to your kind." he looked at Issei, then back at me. "...Though, I have to give you a little bit of credit, kid. Not many of you would jump into a spear of light just to save somebody." he raised his arm, pointing it at me, ready to strike me down for good. "It's a shame that your self-preservation didn't kick in!" Issei yelled out as he stood up, charging at the man, practically throwing himself at him, only to be pushed onto me, making my pain that little bit worse. "Stop trying to tough this out! You're wasting my time!" he shouted, throwing the spear full force into Issei and I, the weapon going straight through Issei, the blade going into me, all I could hear was the sound of screaming, a glowing red light enveloping the area as I began to fall unconscious.

"Damn...you to hell...!" I choked out at the man, my voice practically a hiss as my vision faded and body shut down...

_"...Not again...I don't want to die again...I don't...want..." _my thoughts were the last to go, as I fell unconscious.

**...I mean, we're nearly at the end of episode one...? Bloody hell.**

**Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter...I'm going to respond to the Guest Review now with a simple phrase: "I can't say yet". Mostly because I'm sure you lot would like to wonder about this, rather than know right of the bat.**

**Either way. as I said, hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter, chapter four will be the end of episode one's events, and that means I can stop putting these 'We still haven't finished episode one? Wack' author's notes at the bottom. Chapter four will be coming rather soon, I'd hope, though, I may be focusing a bit on my Azur Lane story, while still writing chapter four, since that story hasn't had it's first chapter yet. Be sure to let me know if I got anything wrong, I really want to make this story as correct as possible to the lore of DxD, so if I got something wrong, please tell me. ****Anyway, I'll see you all next time!  
**


	4. I'm a Devil now!

CHAPTER FOUR - I'm a devil now?!

_"...This is it, huh? This is how I die..After cheating death once, it comes back to bite me in the ass..."_ I think to myself, my brain slowly beginning to work again. _"...Wait...If I'm dead, then...How am I thinking all of this right now?"_

**_"Congratulations,__ dear..."_** a pair of glowing yellow eyes, not too dissimilar from my own, gazed at me through the darkness of death, the voice from before echoing around me, it's soft, feminine, yet crazed tone ringing throughout my mind, suddenly, the creature which the eyes belonged to made itself known, as a candle ignited in front of it, revealing the slightly smirking face of a woman, violet hair streaming down her back and slightly over her body, her face had a slight gentleness to it, almost motherly, but this was overshadowed by the ghastly look in her eyes. _"In the span of two days, you've cheated death twice.~"_ she grinned, something moving in the darkness behind her. _"I'm proud of you."_

"W-who are you?" I said, fear clear in my voice as I stared at the woman as she put her finger on her chin, feigning thinking.

_"Now...that,"_ she began, looking back at me, smirking more. _"Is a question to be answered at another time, my dear.~" _I blinked, trying to figure out if I knew this woman or not, her face and voice was ringing a few bells, but I couldn't figure out how she was familiar to me. _"After all...I'm sure miss Gremory will be coming to get you up soon."_

"M-miss Gremory?" I asked, blinking more, my confusion and fear deepening. Just as I began to open my mouth to speak more, I heard a voice echo around the darkness, a voice which I instantly recognised.

_"Lyonette. Wake up, please."_ it was unmistakable. The elegant, classy tone was too unique to me for me to mistake it for anyone elses. The woman cocked her head, looking up at the 'ceiling', smirking.

"R-Rias...?" I muttered, my voice resounding with disbelief and shock. The woman looked over at me, her smirk turning to a somewhat soft smile.

_"I'll see you soon, my dear.~" _she said, the candle suddenly extinguishing, along with it, the glowing eyes which stared me down...

I jolted upright, looking around the room frantically, barely able to see anything through by blurry vision besides the slight colour of some objects.

"She's awake!" I heard Issei's voice state excitedly, relief lacing his voice as he spoke. My vision began to focus as somebody slipped my glasses onto my face, I blinked, realising that I was in a small room, which I recognised as the guest room in Issei's house, looking to my side, seeing two people, both of them smiling at me, one a girl, one a boy. The boy was unmistakably Issei, who looked relieved to no end, and the girl was non other than Rias Gremory, the girl who, in the past few days, seemed to have become a reoccurring theme.

"I'm surprised you pulled through." Rias said with a gentle smile, putting a hand on her hip. "I'm sure most people would have given up the ghost by now. But even after what you did the first time, you're fine." it took a moment for my brain to process all of what she said, before the wording she used hit me like a truck.

"...what did I do?" I asked, blinking curiously as I looked at the red-head. Rias smiled for a moment, waving her hand dismissively.

"I'll tell you later." I opened my mouth to speak, letting the duvet over me fall down, warranting somewhat of a blush from Issei. "I'll say this right off the bat: I'll tell you everything later, that's what I told Issei, and that's what I'll tell you." she responded before I could even speak, folding her arms. "In the meantime though...I think you should get yourself dressed, you can't go to school nude, you know." my eyes widened a bit as I slowly looked down at myself, realising that, yes, I was completely naked. I squealed a little, looking around frantically.

"Where are my clothes?!" I asked, looking up at Rias, covering myself with the duvet of the bed I was in. Rias giggled a little, pointing to the radiator on the other side of the room.

"They're on there. We'll leave while you get changed."

[Timeskip: Walking into school with Rias and Issei.]

As Issei, Rias and I walked onto the school grounds, we were met with plenty of stares and whispers, many seeming jealous of Issei and I, what with us walking in with Rias, with many of them, I simply smirked and gave them a thumbs up, which seemed to rub a few of them the wrong way, considering how much complaining I was hearing.

"I'll send someone to fetch you both later." Rias stated, looking at us both, smiling slightly. I tilted my head in slight confusion, unsure of what she meant.

"Fetch us?" I asked, looking at Rias, frowning a slight bit as she turned away, beginning to walk off.

"Correct. I'll talk to you both after school." she said to us, taking her leave and walking off fully. Issei seemed to panic for a moment, looking at Rias.

"R-Rias, wait! Shouldn't I walk you to class or some-" he was cut off by a sudden punch to the face, knocking him backwards into a wall, I stepped back, looking at the agressor, finding it to be non-other than a very upset Matsuda.

"What the fuck?!" he shouted, clenching his fists and scowling angrily. "Is that how it is?! How're we meant to be bros when you're pippin' big red on the DL, man?!" he continued, his voice raising even more as I stared at him, blinking.

_"What the actual shit did he just say?"_ I mentally complained, now confused _and_ angry. _"Those words made no sense..."_

"What the actual fuck, Matsuda!" I yelled back at him, stepping forward slightly. "I oughta deck you for that, you massive prick!" slowly, Motohama came along, putting his hand on mine and Matsuda's shoulders.

"Now now, Matsuda, Lyo, there's no need for that..." he stated, seemingly trying to diffuse the situation to the best of his ability. I looked at him, shocked that he was actually being responsible for once, and not getting in on the violence towards Issei.

"What!? He's frontin'!" Matsuda complained, looking at Motohama, who simply looked at Issei, pushing his glasses up his face a bit more.

"Issei is our buddy, let's give him a chance to explain." he stated, his voice a lot calmer than usual, looking at Issei expectantly.

_"Oh shit. Motohama's actually being reasonable for once!"_ I thought to myself, smiling a slight bit, slightly proud of the bespectacled boy.

"Where did you go?! And what did you do after you left yesterday?!" he said, pointing at Issei, a slight bit of anger in his voice, meanwhile, Matsuda looked ready to explode. I suddenly realised that if I didn't intervene, this situation would escalate, I stepped between Issei and our two pissed off buddies.

"Leave him alone! He walked me home last night because of my headache and shit!" I lied, trying not to give away the fact that I was lying, trying to keep a straight face. Issei looked up at me with a 'Come on man' kind of expression, as if he was about to say something.

"Then why was Rias with you?!" Motohama queried, looking ready to punch us both. I froze for a moment, trying to think of a good lie to use.

"...We met her on our way home yesterday and arranged for us to walk to school with her." I bluffed, nearly letting a smirk cross my face, but managed to remain straight-faced. Motohama seemed to relax a bit, standing up straight and clearing his throat, adjusting his glasses.

"...Alright then, I apologise, then." he said hesitantly, folding his arms. Matsuda seemed to loosen up a bit, but still looked a little mad.

"Fine, I guess..." he said, walking over to Issei and helping him up to his feet, muttering something about how he wanted to 'tap that red-head ass'. I smiled a little, sighing in relief, glad that I could diffuse the situation.

"Erm...With that out of the way..." I said, rubbing the back of my head, sighing a bit. "I'm gonna head to class. Since I really don't want to be late..."

"...I may as well go too." Issei said, folding his arms, glaring at me slightly. Matsuda and Motohama looked at each other, then nodded. I began to walk to class, sighing a bit, still in a little bit of shock about how I managed to successfully bluff me and Issei out of that situation.

_"Sheesh...I have a silver tongue."_ I said, smiling a bit to myself, adjusting my glasses and clutching my bag to me. _"Then again...Matsuda's as dumb as a brick, and Motohama's easy to fool...So, maybe not that far..."_

"You could have let me handle that situation, you know." Issei said, walking next to me, looking away from me. I looked at him, pouting a slight bit.

"Knowing you, you would have gotten yourself into deeper shit." I stated, folding my arms. "And I'm sure you don't want to have a repeat of the Tit Hole incident..."

"Yeah...True." Issei said with a sigh, pursing his lips. "...Would have still been funny to make them jealous, though."

[Timeskip: After School]

The bell had rung, marking the end of the school day, the people around us were packing their things into their bags, discussing what they would be doing, where they'd be going, etcetera. But not me and Issei, we got our shit packed up and proceeded to stand there awkwardly like idiots, waiting for this person Rias was sending to show up.

"Sheesh..How long is this person gonna be?" Issei asked, attempting to break up the awkward silence which befell us. "Whoever they are, they're taking their sweet ass time."

"God-knows." I responded, sighing slightly, trying to wrap my head around what was even happening, due to my brain still being slow and overwhelmed from the lesson we just had. Suddenly, my efforts to mentally steady myself were interrupted by the squealing of god-knows how many girls, as a boy strolled into our classroom, blonde hair, blue eyes, wandering in as if it was some kind of sitcom.

_"...Kiba Fucking Yuuto?" _my eyes narrowed a slight bit, giving the boy the death glare. _"The fuck is he doing here?" immediately_, girls began swarming him, causing even more of a racket which worsened my already raging headache. Issei muttered something under his breath, a spiteful look crossing his face as he glared at him, his face shifting to confusion as the boy began to approach us.

"There you both are!" Kiba stated, smiling cheerfully, his voice equally cheerful. I scowled at him, frowning.

"What do you want?" I growled, clenching my fists again, a little angry that I didn't have another rock to throw at him.

"Rias sent me to fetch you both to her." he stated casually, seemingly failing to realise the fact that he was speaking to two people who hates his guts. "Would you both mind coming with me?"

_"...So, Rias sent Kiba to come and get us...Popular kids talk, I suppose."_

"Oh my god! Is Kiba about to walk out of this room with those two?!" one of the girls from the crowd squealed in disbelief, horror in her eyes as she spoke.

"Please shut it! I have a headache, and you're making it worse!" I yelled back at the girl, standing up with my bag in hand. The girl simply looked at me scornfully, looking like she was about to come over and try and beat the shit out of me.

"Now now, ladies. Settle down." Kiba said calmly, trying to stop the situation from escalating further. I growled slightly, beginning to walk out of the classroom on my own, purposefully bumping into the girl on the way out. Kiba walked out after me, with a relatively pissed off Issei in tow. "Follow me." Kiba stated, as he walked in front of, continuing to walk through the corridor and out of the building.

_"Smug bastard..."_

"Oh, and, Lyonette?" Kiba suddenly stopped, turning to look at me, much to mine and Issei's ire, the blonde haired boy rooted around in his bag, taking a rock out of it, handing it to me. "Thank you, here's your rock back. It's been really useful as a paperweight." he casually stated with a calm, semi-sarcastic smile on his face.

"Did you just...?" I was a mixture of confused and impressed, thanks to the smugness of this action. _"This dude really kept the rock I threw at him last week just to give it back to me...What a fucking power move." _we had soon arrived at the old school building, standing in one of it's rooms. The room had a series of paintings and pictures on the walls, the whole thing lit by the various candles placed around the room, a small coffee table with two fancy couches situated on either side of it, on one of which, a white haired girl with a small cat pin in her hair was sat, eating something.

"Where are we?" Issei asked, looking around the room, his gaze falling onto the girl sat on the couch. I walked away from the two of them, looking around the room, whistling.

"This is a pretty nice place..." I said, nodding as I looked around, looking over at an area where what appeared to be a curtain was hung, the sound of running water being heard from behind it, I blinked, looking over at Kiba. "Do you have a shower in the club room?"

"Yes. We do." Kiba responded, seemingly finding nothing to be strange about the concept. "Trust me, there's a lot more to be surprised about here."

"I love this club!" Issei suddenly exclaimed, jumping up into the air, a look of joy on his face, seemingly hearing about the shower. I sighed, looking at Kiba.

"That's going to be issue with Issei here..." I stated, pursing my lips and folding my arms. The girl on the sofa gave Issei a disapproving look, going back to eating whatever she was eating.

"Well, things certainly seem lively in here.~" a soft voice stated from near the shower, where a relatively busty girl with black hair done up in a ponytail stood, smiling at all of us, seemingly after she'd brought whoever was in the shower their clothes.

"Where'd you come from?" I asked, blinking, quickly, startled by the girl's sudden presence. The girl giggled, walking nearer to me and Issei, who seemed to back up a little, flustered.

"There's no need to be alarmed." the girl said with a smile, looking at us both. "You're the new guys that Rias was talking about, aren't you?" she bowed politely, much to my confusion.

"Uh...Yeah? We are?" I replied quietly, blinking slightly, adjusting my glasses a bit. The girl stood back up, still with a soft smile on her face.

"It's nice to meet you.~" she said happily, seemingly trying to be as reassuring as possible.

"Likewise, miss...?" I began to say, trailing off as I realised that I didn't know her name.

"My name is Akeno. I'm the vice president." the girl said, looking over me and Issei. "And you are?"

"Lyonette Griffin, or, Lyo, for short." I pointed over at Issei, smiling back at Akeno a little. "That's Issei Hyodou. He's here too." Issei rubbed the back of his head, chuckling nervously.

"Rias told me all about you two.~" Akeno said, her smile not faultering as she looked at us. I blinked slightly, looking around, pursing my lips.

_"Speaking of Red-Head-McBigTits, where is she? This is her club, right?" _I looked at Akeno, tilting my head slightly. "Where is Rias?" Akeno giggled slightly, looking over at the shower, then back at us.

"She's just freshening up a bit, she'll be out soon.~" she stated, standing up straight. "In the meantime, why don't you talk to your friend or one of the other club members?" I looked over at the white haired girl on the sofa, who was looking over at us curiously.

"...Sure." I said, looking back at Akeno, walking over to the white haired girl, looking down at her, the girl gazed up at me, her expression indifferent, and her eyes displaying nothing but sheer, absolute boredom. "Heya, wh-"

"Suck it." the girl stated, looking away from me, looking on the other side of the room. I glared at the girl, frowning a little.

"Hey! That's pretty damn rude of you, all I did was say 'hey'!" I exclaimed, putting my hands on the arm of the sofa as I leaned down a bit, growling slightly.

"Girls, please don't fight!" Kiba said, walking over and putting a hand on my shoulder, I whipped around and pushed him away.

"Get outta this! This is my business!" I growled, glaring daggers at Kiba. The white haired girl looked at me, sighing.

"You've gotta real bad attitude, you know that?" she said, pursing her lips, glaring slightly.

"I have a bad attitude?!" I responded, looking back at the girl, gritting my teeth slightly. "Says the girl who responded to 'hey' with 'suck it'! What the hell is your problem?!"

"Calm down, Lyonette, it was just Koneko trying to joke around with you, that's all." Kiba chipped in, giving a nervous chuckle as he looked between me and the girl, apparently named Koneko. Koneko raised an eyebrow at Kiba.

"Who says it was a joke?" she stated with a deadpan expression, her voice sounding just as disinterested as she looked. I gritted my teeth, standing up straight, trying to resist the urge to kick this girl's shit in.

_"The nerve of this bitch!"_

"Sorry to keep you all waiting." Rias' voice stopped me in my tracks, directing my gaze over to the shower, where she was standing, drying her hair with a towel. "I haven't had a chance to wash all day."

"N-no, you're hot- I mean, fine, uh..." Issei stammered, trying to find the best way to word what he was trying to convey without sounding like a creep and failing miserably. Rias looked at Issei, an amused giggle escaping her, before she diverted her attention to all of us.

"Well, now that you two are here, I think that's everyone!" Rias stated, a smile on her face as she walked over near the sofas, gesturing for us to sit, which we all did. "I formally welcome you both to the Occult Research Club!"

"...Thank you?" I stated, crossing my arms, looking at everyone, glaring at the white haired girl, before looking back at Rias.

"Y-yeah...Thanks." Issei muttered, rubbing the back of his head nervously again. Rias looked at us both, smiling a little more.

"...But, you should know that the name of this club is just a front." she stated in a matter-of-fact tone, folding her arms. It took me a moment to process what she just said, about this club being a front, which made it sound rather ominous. "... It's supposed to look like this is some sort of hobby."

"Okay..." Issei began, blinking, his expression a mix of fear and confusion. "...Then, what is this really then?" I felt the atmosphere change from comfortable and inviting to sinister and tense in an instant as Rias' smile turned to a smirk.

"...Well, since you asked, I'll be frank with you, Issei." she looked at Issei as she spoke, I felt myself shiver a bit, holding my head, feeling a little sick. "... I'm not the only Devil here."

"Devil?!" I shouted, blinking, intending for it to be a mere thought, but shouting it instead. Rias looked at me, her normally calm and elegant face seemingly more sinister with this newfound knowledge I had of her.

"Yes, Lyonette. Devil." she said, her smirk seemingly going back to being more calm and reserved, but the eerie aura she gave off remained.

"What do you mean?! Like, a demon or something!?" I felt myself panic a little, being a girl who grew up in a fairly religious household thrust into this situation, in a room full of Devils, I could do naught but panic.

"In a sense, yes." she said, looking at me, her expression slightly more serious. "And the winged man you encountered yesterday was something else. A Fallen Angel."

_"A Fallen Angel...Is that what that voice meant by 'Fallen one'?"_

**_"Yes, as a matter of fact. You're quite the smart one,__ dear.~"_** the voice echoed in my mind once more, as I began holding my head.

_"Hey! You're actually here? You still have a lot of questions to answer, bitch!"_ a quiet sigh reverberated around my mind as my vision was enveloped in darkness again, the woman was in the same spot she was before, but this time her smirk was more of a frown.

_"Fine. So be it. Ask and I shall answer, to a limit."_ the woman stated, folding her arms, putting her hand on her face. I shivered a bit, her face giving me a horrid sense of deja vu.

_"Um...Who are you?"_ I asked, blinking, surprised that she was actually willing to answer me.

_"Hmm...Well, the name I had before was Equinox."_ the woman stated, seeming to think for a moment, before directing her attention back to me._ "...Anyway, next question."_

_"...Uh..."_ I suddenly remembered about how that 'Fallen Angel' mentioned something called a Sacred Gear. _"What's a Sacred Gear?"_

_"...That, you'll find out very soon, I'd hope." _Equinox stated, smirking a bit, before waving her hand again. _"Next question."_

_"Uh..."_ I racked my brain to try and think of any more questions I may have had, holding my head. _"...I dunno. What's your measurements?" _Equinox's eyes widened, blinking slightly, a dumbfounded look on her face.

_"Excuse me?"_ she responded, looking incredibly perplexed by the question. _"...What did you just ask me?"_ I felt my face redden a bit, looking around the darkness, pursing my lips, before looking back at her.

_"Y-your measurements."_ I continued, deciding to roll with it, folding my arms. _"What are they?"_

_"...I haven't the foggiest idea what you're on about." _Equinox responded, blinking, tilting her head.

"Lyonette?"

Suddenly, my vision of the room returned as I blinked, looking towards the source of the voice, Rias, who was looking at me, tilting her head. "Did you hear my explaination? You seemingly zoned out for a moment there."

"Uh..." I blinked, looking around the room, before directing my gaze back to Rias. "No. I didn't...Sorry." Rias pursed her lips, sighing, folding her arms.

"The long and short of it is, you and Issei are devils now, just like everyone else in the room." she began, looking at me. "I also explained how the man you encountered yesterday was a Fallen Angel, one of the two factions which are actively trying to wipe us Devils out." it took me a moment to process all of this information, what with the clusterfuck of weirdness that made up the past few days suddenly being explained to me, I felt overwelmed.

"...So, we're Devils now...? As in, _actual fucking devils_?" I quietly asked, feeling a little sick at the thought.

_"Mom's going to crucify me if she finds out...literally."_

"Wait...The man had black wings, just like Yuuma did..." I suddenly realised, looking at Rias again, holding my head. "...Does that mean that she was a Fallen Angel too?"

"Correct." Rias responded, smiling at me. "You came to that conclusion quicker than I thought you would."

"So...That means that..." I looked down at my chest, patting where my heart was and frowning, before looking up again. "...What happened on sunday wasn't a dream? Me and Issei...Died?"

"Yes...You did for a time, and frankly, you nearly died again last night." Rias said, putting her hand on her hip, looking at the two of us.

"Wait...So, if it wasn't a dream, then how come her number isn't in my phone anymore? Or Matsuda and Motohama don't remember her?" Issei asked, looking puzzled and uncomfortable. "This is really weird stuff you're dropping on us, Rias."

"We can erase human memories. As can Fallen Angels. Usually it's the best thing for everyone, including your parents." Rias stated, seeming happy to answer our multitude of questions.

_"...So, that's why my mom didn't remember me going out on sunday..."_ I realised, looking back at Rias, shaking a bit. "S-so...Yuuma said something about a thing called a Sacred Gear...What's that?"

"Well, that actually transitions rather well into what I'm about to tell you." Rias said, her smile never faultering. "The reason Yuuma killed Issei was because he had this aforementioned 'Sacred Gear', and although I can't confirm it, you may have one too."

"That doesn't answer my question." I responded, folding my arms, getting tired of this question not being answered for the second time. "What _is_ this Sacred Gear shit?"

"Basically, it's a special power that manifests in a rare few individuals." Akeno said calmly, looking at me with a smile on her face. "Quite a few humans have them, to not to the caliber of Issei's, and if we're to assume, yours."

"...Right...That explains it...Kinda." I blinked, holding my head, still feeling overwhelmed by the knowledge being bestowed upon me.

"Issei," Rias suddenly stated, sitting down at looking at him. "...Please hold up your left hand."

"Uh...Okay. But I'm not very good at catch." Issei jested, doing as he was instructed. I scowled, shaking my head at him for making such a terrible joke. Rias looked at me, folding her arms.

"Lyonette, do the same, but with your right hand." I sighed a little as I did so, my arm feeling a little weak for some reason. "Now, both of you, close your eyes and think about the body part you think is strongest, then focus on that strength." I closed my eyes, plunging my vision into darkness.

"Wait, we're doing this now?! Th-there's a lot of pressure..." Issei protested, nervously chuckling a bit.

"It will be easier if you focus."

_"Body part that's strongest...I dunno. The arm I'm currently holding up? I mean, I use it a lot..." _I could hear Issei struggling to focus, making weird noises and the like. I began to feel a slight burning sensation in my arm, a slight pained growl escaping me as I tried to keep my focus, the burning slowly growing more intense, until...

"OW, FUCK!" a sudden jolt of agony shot up my arm as I yelled out in pain, dropping to my knees and holding my arm, small tears coming out of my closed eyes. "Fuck, fuck fuck fuck!" I don't think I've ever swore that much in my whole life, and yet somehow I kept my focus on it, when suddenly, it all stopped. I heard a gasp come from everyone as I remained on my knees, panting, trying my best to recover from the intense pain I just felt.

"Lyo! You alright?" I felt someone's hand make contact with my back as I slowly opened my eyes, looking to my side, where Issei was crouched, his left hand on my back.

"Yeah, other than just feeling like I had my arm chopped off, I'm fine!" I yelled, looking at my arm, black veins clear as day on my arm, slowly vanishing. "...What happened?" Rias looked a little disgruntled, frowning slightly.

"You both failed to manifest your Sacred Gears...?" she said, sounding slightly disappointed.

"Well, I'm sorry miss Devil Princess! Believe it or not, I'm not going to put myself in agony just because you want to see me use some weird power!" I yelled, standing up and glaring at Rias. "I'm already overwhelmed with the amount of things I've learned today! I'm not going to willing put myself through pain right now!" Rias looked a little shocked, frowning a little.

"...Pain? You were feeling pain when attempting to manifest your Sacred Gear?" she asked, sounding a mixture of concerned and hurt, gazing at me.

"Yeah!" I shouted, getting ready to do something drastic, before recognising the tone in her voice. "..Is it not meant to hurt or something?" Rias slowly shook her head, seemingly pushing the thought to the back of her mind.

"Huh...At least you're not like me, too weak to even get close..." Issei piped up, frowning a little.

"Eh...I mean. Wasn't I the one who died to a Fallen Angel by running headfirst into them? I'd say that's pretty weak." I responded, folding my arms, sighing. "... Speaking of that, how are we alive?" Rias slowly held up a small sheet of paper, identical to the flyer the girl in the street had passed me.

"Do either of you remember this?" she asked, gazing at us both as she spoke, earning a nod from both of us. "Just before the end of your life, Issei summoned with his thoughts, through this flyer."

"Huh...Like a weird Devil hotline, with no telephones..." I replied, my voice somewhat of a mumble. _"So, I suppose I have Issei to blame for this..."_

"And so, that day, you were both revived and reborn as honoured members of the house of Rias Gremory!" a small bit of wind could be felt in the room, despite there being no windows open. A pair of bat-like wings sprouted from her back, her hair waving around as Issei and I watched her, the feeling of being in the presence of a higher being slowly beginning to make itself known. "Which means that now, you are both my devil servants." she stated, putting a hand on her hip, smiling a little. My eyes widened as I stared at Rias, coming to the realisation of why I had this feeling of inferiority towards her. It wasn't because she was more popular, was prettier, or had bigger tits than me...

_"She's my master...?"_

* * *

**Once again, I thank Silver for helping me out with this story. I'm not gonna lie, I nearly had a mental breakdown over this chapter and what comes after it, but he convinced me not to put a torch to it all! Go check out his story: Welsh Dragon Eater, he's been working on his for a lot longer than I've worked on this, so I'd say you should check it out.**

**I'm sorry if this chapter isn't as good as the rest. I haven't exactly had the best week while writing this...**


	5. A holy paladin

_Chapter 5 - A holy paladin.  
_

I gazed at Rias thoughtfully, all of the things I learned rushing at me once as something seemed to click in my head. Things seemed to make more sense, or, more sense than it had been for the past few days. The feelings of inferiority around Rias, my eyes acting up in the dark, hell, even the shit about the Sacred Gear might explain the gap in my memory between me standing up to confront the Fallen Angel and me laying on the ground, dying. Even though I had so many of them answered, I still had a lot more questions...

"Isn't this great? You two are finally like us.~" Akeno exclaimed, a pair of Devil wings springing from her back, a grin on her face as one by one, the same wings sprouted from everyone in the room, small gusts of wind filling the room as I felt my back begin to pulse, a cry of surprise escaping me as the leathery assets burst from me, I blinked, looking at my wings, my mouth agape for a moment.

_"So... It's definitely official..." _I looked towards the others, disbelief plain on my face. _"...I'm a Devil." _Issei was looking at his wings with horror, looking overwhelmed and fearful.

"We're glad to have you both here.~" said Rias with a somewhat smug expression, folding her arms. "Issei, Lyonette, welcome.~" for some reason, this felt...right. It was the sort of feeling you get when you come home after being away for a week, I could feel my disbelief turning to excitement at the thought of all of this, the thought of suddenly being thrust into something new.

"... I'm glad to be here." I said, smiling slightly, my wings flapping a slight bit as I looked at Rias. Issei's jaw dropped, a small croaking noise being heard from him.

"How are you being so calm about this?! We're freakin' Devils, Lyo!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. I looked back at him, putting a hand on my hip.

"And? So what?" I asked, tilting my head. "We were going to go to hell anyway, so what's the problem with reserving spots?"

_"And...That's my obligatory one-liner for the day done."_

"You seem rather pleased with this, Lyonette.~" Rias spoke, her arms still folded as she gazed between Issei and I.

"Eh... What's the point in fretting about it?" I responded rhetorically, blinking as it dawned on me that she said that we were 'revived and reborn'. "...Erm...If you don't mind me asking...How does this rebirthing humans into Devils thing work, anyway?" Rias smiled a little, sitting back down, looking at me.

"I'm glad you asked.~" she replied, crossing her legs as she did so. "The way this works is that we grant power to humans for a price we both agree on, then seal it with a pact,"

"...I don't think I agreed to this..." I said, looking at my wings, then back at Rias. "Not consciously, anyway..."

"Yeah! I don't think I agreed to being turned into a Devil, Rias!" Issei said, stepping forward, looking slightly angry, his wings tensing up. "I didn't agree to be your 'Devil Servant', either!" Rias looked slightly agitated by Issei's anger, which is a little ironic, now that I think about it.

"Why do you even need servants, anyway?" I asked, folding my arms. "Don't you lot work alone and answer summons and shit?"

"...We used to answer summons from magic circles, but that became too complicated and difficult, so we started doing house calls and things along those lines." she responded, looking at me as Akeno left the room. "We use servants to step in for summons which we can't attend ourselves, so...Think of it like how a substitute teacher works, how there's a substitute in reserve in case the normal teacher is sick or otherwise preoccupied." I blinked, smiling a little, finally making sense of it.

"Huh, neat! So, we're going to be taking jobs for you from this point on?" I questioned excitedly, looking forward to doing summons and getting to be a badass devil.

_"I can be all dark and mysterious and shit...And use long words and cryptic as fuck sentences to scare people! Hell yeah!"_

"...Well, not right now..." Rias said as Akeno entered the room, placing a large number of flyers on a table, all of them bound together. "...For now, you two are on flyer duty." I felt my heart sink a little as Rias beckoned us over. We both went up to the table.

"F-flyer duty...?" I asked, frowning a little as I stared at the flyers on the table. Rias directed her gaze to me.

"Yes, flyer duty." she stated bluntly as Akeno brought over a bag and placed it with the flyers. "Normally, we'd have a messenger demon make the run, but since you're both new here, I figured it would benefit you both to know what exactly goes into this job.,"

"...So, we're just going to deliver flyers to people...?" I asked quietly, as Issei began putting the flyers in the bag. "...That sounds..boring."

"Don't worry about it! You'll get a chance to do other things, just not right now! And besides..." Rias leaned in and smirked a little, taking Issei and I by surprise. "If you both do well enough, you could even get servants of your own.~" it was at this point that Issei's face turned to flustered joy as he looked up at Rias, chuckling a little.

"...Uh, so, let's say I do _really_ well..." he grinned in his regular perverted fashion, seemingly getting excited. "Would my servants do anything I want?"

"Of course." Rias stated, seemingly happy that she finally got Issei to cooperate. Issei's eyes lit up, as he began to run to the door with the bag.

"Come on, Lyo! Let's go!" he yelled as he opened the door, laughing maniacally. "I'm gonna have a hareeeem!" I listened as he went into the courtyard, his perverted shouting echoing around it. I sighed, looking at the others.

"See you all...soon, I guess." I said as I walked out of the door, rolling my eyes as I heard Issei shouting more.

_[Perspective of: Narrator]_

The rest of the Occult Research Club watched Lyonette as she exited the room, the sound of Issei and her yelling being heard outside of the club room. Kiba sat back down, sighing a little.

"Those two are going to be a handful, I can tell..." he said, looking up at Rias.

"Issei's well known for being a pervert, and one third of us are girls..." Koneko said, her expression still as deadpan as ever.

"I don't think we should worry." Rias said, smiling slightly. "I see potential in both of them, even if they are a little...Pervy."

"Any idea of what their Sacred Gears are?" Kiba asked, curiously, standing up again.

"I have an idea about Issei's..." Rias said, beginning to think to herself. "...But, as for Lyonette...I can't even hazard a guess."

"You can't?" Akeno asked, looking a little surprised. "I'd have thought you'd have plenty to say about Lyonette, considering how she didn't even summon you when you brought her back..." Rias sighed, walking over to the window.

"I can only gather that whatever it is, it manifests on her arm..." she stated, looking at the other three. "That's all I can guess."

"Do you know if she even has one?" Akeno asked, tilting her head, walking over to Rias. "I mean...Sure, she may be a lot like Issei, but surely they can't _both_ have Sacred Gears like that." Rias was quiet, thinking for a moment, before sighing once more.

"I know that she does. I just know it." she stated, gazing out of the window. "Something was going on with her arm when I found her, which was accompanied by a large amount of power coming from her, as if she'd used some kind of magic or..."

"So...You're saying that she tried to fight the Fallen Angel?" Kiba asked, raising an eyebrow. Rias looked at the rest of the group, her red hair swishing to the side.

"...She may have tried to, but I'm not sure..." she responded, folding her arms, a slight look of worry on her face. "...My hope is that it's something that doesn't negatively impact us...or her."

"I guess only time will tell." Akeno said, smiling and looking at the rest of the group. "With that being said, how about we all have a drink while we wait for the two newbies to come back?"

_[Timeskip: Return, Perspective of: Lyonette Griffin]_

"Issei! Get your ass back here!"

_**THUMP!**_

That was the sound of me running into a door that Issei swung into my way, in his haste to run and tell Rias that we'd completed the deliveries, he forgot about the fact that physics is very much a thing.

"ASSHOLE!"

"Rias! We finished the deliveries!" I heard Issei exclaim as I entered the club room, rubbing my face where it hit the door, frowning. The room smelled of tea and coffee, with all the other club members sat around the table, drinking out of mugs, as you do.

"Excellent. There's just one more job I need you to do tonight." Rias said, smiling, looking at us both. "...Well, two jobs, one for each of you."

"Yeah? Go on." Issei said, seemingly incredibly excited to be a step closer to 'having a harem'.

"Issei. Koneko's been double-booked with two summon requests, so we need you to take her place for one of them." Rias said, nodding at him as she directed her gaze to me. "Lyonette. I need you to attend a summoning for me. I remembered how excited you were about the concept of doing something like this, so I decided to let you take it rather than me." the sour mood which Issei's door-slamming antics had left me in had seemingly dissapaited, my expression turning to that of a smile.

"T-thank you, Rias!" I stuttered, not sure how to feel about the sudden responsibility being lumped on me.

"Hey, that's pretty cool! We both get to do summonings!" Issei said, my enthusiasm seemingly rubbing off on him as he patted my back.

"Hell yeah!" I shouted, thrusting my fist into the air and jumping up and down, like a little kid about to get a new toy. Rias seemed a little taken aback by my excitement, but seemed amused anyway.

"Well then...I suppose we should get you right into it." she said, looking over at Akeno, who nodded and raised her arms as a red glow manifested around of her, the glow slowly formed into a strange circle with various runes and symbols on it, the glow soon overtaking all light in the room. My eyes widened, as did Issei's as I gazed upon this strange glyph. "We call this a Transportation Circle. Just step into it after Akeno gets out and you'll be on your way.~" I blinked as Akeno slowly walked out of the circle, an empty space being made in the middle. I looked back at Rias, smiling.

"I'll try not to fuck this up!" I stated, running into the middle of the circle, stumbling a little as I felt my body begin to tingle slightly, simply standing in the middle of the circle, my right arm twitching a little. "Here goes nothing...!"

In a disorienting flash of light, I felt the atmosphere of the room I was in change drastically, from somewhat welcoming to dangerous and oppressive in an instant. I heard a quiet gasp as my eyes slowly made sense of the room around me, decorated with various different posters of knights, fantasy games, as well as a decorative sword on the wall which looked strikingly familiar to me...In front of me, was a girl, blonde hair, green eyes, wearing a white shirt with a blue bow on the front, staring back at me, it took me a moment, but I soon realised who I was looking at...

"...Tylia?" I asked in disbelief, any thoughts I had of being mysterious and edgy escaping me in an instant. Tylia's face was a picture of shock, her mouth agape and her eyes wide.

"...Lyonette?" there was a tone in her voice which I had never heard before, a strange mixture of spite, fear and surprise, the tone made me feel uncomfortable, uttered in the semi-endearing faux British accent of my sister's, it felt so...unatural.

"W-what are you doing summoning Devils?!" I exclaimed, stepping back a bit, looking at Tylia, bewildered. Tylia's expression changed from shocked to just plain grim.

"...When I instigated this summon, I expected to gaze upon the visage of a horrid creature, struck from God's light..." she said, looking at me, the look in her eyes changing to a look of slight anger, her eyebrows furrowing. "...What I did not expect, was for the face of my own kin to gaze upon me from an infernal circle of unholiness!" she raised her voice, standing up straight and gritting her teeth, an enraged expression on her face.

"...U-uh...Tylia..." I stammered, stepping back into the wall, a small bump being heard as I made contact with it. "...You're...kind of scaring me." it was true. I'd only ever felt this feeling of fear and confusion once before, that being when that Fallen Angel had killed me and Issei, yet here I was, feeling it yet again due to my own sister. Tylia slowly stepped towards me, dead silent for a moment, before suddenly crying out:

"Holy Lance!" it was a surreal sight, my sister, holding her right fist up, a small blue gauntlet forming around it, with a giant glowing double-sided lance sticking out of both ends of it, it truly was, and the very sight of this lance made my hair stand up on end.

_**"Now is not the time to stand about..."**_ I heard Equinox's voice ring around in my head, her voice seeming to be slightly panicked. _**"Now is the time to run the fuck away!"**_

I quickly tried to bolt for the door, my escape cut off by Tylia's lance as she stabbed it into the wall.

"You dare try and run, coward?!" she growled, using her normal hand to push me away from the door, proceeding to stand in front of it, holding her lance aloft. "To think...My own sister would show such dishonor!" she charged at me, the blade of her lance narrowly missing my stomach as she rammed me into the wall, her eyes were alight with rage, her teeth gritted as she glared daggers at me, rearing her lance back.

"Tylia, stop this!" I cried out, beginning to panic more than I already was, my eyes wide with fear. "It's me, Lyonette, y-your sister!" Tylia sneered, kneeing me in the stomach, causing me to let out a loud grunt of pain.

"My sister is no Devil...Was, no Devil." she snarled, headbutting me, dropping me, then stamping on my leg, causing me to let out a shriek of pain. "You are no longer my sister, you are but a sick mockery of who she used to be!" if I was still human, I'd be praying for my life right now, wishing for God to save me from this nightmare of a scenario...But, now that I'm a Devil...What can I do?

_"Think about the body part you feel is the strongest."_ Rias had told me, while talking about the Sacred Gears. _"Focus on that strength." _I blinked, trying to ignore the pain as I closed my eyes, focusing the thought of my right arm's strength.

_"Focus...Ignore the pain..." _I began to mentally repeat to myself, the burning sensation returning my arm, causing me to squeeze my eyes shut tighter, my cries becoming louder as I felt the pain in my arm slowly escalate. _"Focus, focus, focus!"_

"Sacred Gear!" I yelled as the pain suddenly stopped, as I felt a cold feeling envelop my arm, the weakness it had begun feeling from the pain becoming strength as I looked down at it, gasping at what I saw. My whole arm had turned black- no, it had something black on it. A gauntlet, reminicsent of the claw of some kind of mythological beast, a slight red glow it's edges as I stared at it.

"What?!" I heard Tylia exclaim as she stepped back, her eyes full of shock and horror. "You...have one too?!" I looked up at Tylia, my mind trying to process what she just said, before a smirk came to my face, confidence filling my heart as I stood up, grinning.

"You're damn right I do, sis!" I stated, pointing a clawed finger at my sister, still not 100% exactly what this gauntlet did, and at this point, just trying to throw her off and make it seem like I knew what I was doing. Tylia gritted her teeth, then let out a cry as she charged at me with her lance. I quickly threw my arm up, trying to block the strike with the gauntlet, a loud clang resounding as it was struck, trying to hide my mild panic. "H-ha! To-too slow!"

"Dare you mock me, Devil?!" she shrieked, stabbing her lance at me, another deafening clang resounding throughout the room as the lance made contact with my Sacred Gear, a grunt of pain being heard shortly after as I kicked Tylia to the floor, practically pouncing on her, holding her arms down and spreading my knees so that her legs with inbetween my own as I looked at her face, which seemed so full of spite and hatred...

"Now...How about you calm your non-existant tits and start explaining?" I demanded, glaring her in the eyes, my heart thumping with adrenaline. Tylia glared at me, squirming slightly and sighing.

"I should be asking you to do the same thing, sister..." Tylia responded, her emerald green eyes seeming a lot more...unfocused than normal, bothered, even.

"Well," I said, trying to smile as sincerely as I could. "...How about we take turns in explaining ourselves and _not_ try and kill each other?" Tylia looked down, seemingly fidgeting a little, before sighing in defeat.

"...Very well..." she said, looking up at my face, blinking a little. "But...Only if you get off of me and explain first." I smiled, sighing in relief, seeming as she'd calmed down, I slowly got off of her, sitting next to her on the floor.

"...So, me first, right?" I asked, my gauntlet making a dull clanking noise as it made contact with the floor. Tylia nodded, the lance-gauntlet on her arm dematerialising as she sat up. "...Right...Where to begin..." I began recounting the events of the past couple days to Tylia, telling her of Yuuma, and how she had killed me and Issei after revealing that she was a Fallen Angel, and how Rias had brought us back as Devils, without mentioning any names, of course. By the end of it, Tylia looked a mixture of understanding and pissed off.

"...So...You're a Devil now?" she asked, pursing her lips in a disapproving fashion. "...How awful..."

"It's not as bad as you'd think, actually." I reassured her, smiling. "I know how we've been taught from a young age that demons and devils and shit are bad, what with them being unholy and all that, but I personally like being one." Tylia glared at me, looking like she was about to try and murder me again.

"Mm...To tell you the truth, that sort of ties into why I was attempting to summon a Devil..." Tylia stated, looking down and fidgeting a little. "...I...Wanted to see if Devils were truly as abhorrent as mother always said they were..."

"And...So you attacked me as soon as you did the summon?" I asked, tilting my head as I put a hand on her shoulder, blinking. "You're not making sense there."

"...Force of habit. I see something unholy, I immedietly get tilted and...well, you saw how I was." she answered, shrugging my hand off of her shoulder. "...And, from what mother has told us about Devils, they don't seem like the sort of things that would show any mercy when faced with something holier than themselves."

"Yes, but mom also said that God will smite us if we masturbate." I said, grinning cheekily. "I mean...I don't know about you, but I think if that were the case, I'd be dead already." Tylia seemed to take a moment to process what I just said, then proceeded to wince in disgust. I giggled, crossing my legs. "The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think _everything_ mom has told us is true. Sure, chances are she's probably right about many things, but...Either way, us Devils aren't as bad as they say we are, or, at least not from what I've seen."

"...You...bring up a valid point there, Lyonette." she said, slowly nodding, looking down, her eyes seemingly watering slightly. "...But...It just feels wrong, you being a Devil...It, scares me..." I patted her on the head and gave her a hug, giggling a bit.

"Just remember sis, I might be a Devil now, but...I'm not going to hurt you. not properly, anyway." I reassured her, rubbing her back. "I'm sorry that you had to find out about it like this, but...hey, it was gonna come out eventually." I released Tylia from the hug, grinning at her. "And...hey, you wanted to see whether Devils were as bad as mom said they were...Maybe I could bring you to the ORC sometime, then you can meet my friends?" Tylia sniffed a little, smiling ever so slightly.

"...As much as it pains me to say it..." Tylia began, looking up at me, small tears rolling down her face. "...I'd like that." I stood up, smiling down at her.

"Speaking of...I need to get back to them." I said, looking over at the door, then back at Tylia. "...So, I'll see you later, sis."

"...I'll see you later, Lyonette." with those words from my sister, I exited the room and exited the house, a small smile on my face as I embarked on my journey back to the school, so I could go back to the rest of the club.

_[Timeskip: Return]_

I slowly opened the door, peeking inside the room, where Rias, Kiba, Koneko and Akeno were all sat down, all eyes being directed to me.

"Welcome back." Rias said with a smile, gazing over at me. "How did the summon go?"

"It went...good." I responded, thinking of a way to word it. "...I have _many_ questions, though..."

"...And what might those questions be?" she questioned, folding her arms. I fidgeted a little, thinking of the best way to approach Rias about having my sister come and meet them all.

"...Could I bring someone into the club at some point?" I asked, my voice more or less a whisper. Rias looked at me, seemingly a little taken-aback.

"...I'm afraid not, we can't risk an outsider knowing about this club's true nature..." she answered, looking at me curiously. "Why? Who were you going to bring?"

"...I was wanting to bring my sister." I responded, looking down. "...She wanted to see if Devils were as bad as our mom always said they were..."

"You told your sister that you're a Devil?!" Rias suddenly interjected, her eyes widening. I squeaked, holding my hands up defensively.

"I-in my defence! That's because she was the one who put in a summon request! Y'know, the one which I just did for you..." I stated in a panic, trying to diffuse the situation before Rias started yelling at me. "She put in the summon resquest because she wanted to see if we were as bad as our mom said we were, then she saw that _I _was the one who was summoned and put two and two together!" Rias was quiet for a moment, before putting her hand on her face and sighing.

"...Alright. That's fine..." she said, rubbing her face. "...As long as you didn't tell her about us as a club, it's all good..." I felt my heart sink slightly, as I remembered what I had said to her.

_"Maybe I could bring you to the ORC sometime, then you can meet my friends?"_

"...Well, you see, the thing about that is-" I was interupted by the sound of the door to the room being bust open, nearly falling onto my front as Issei crashed through the door, a panicked look on his face.

"Rias! Rias! I just saw another Fallen Angel!" he said, panting, out of breath.

"A Fallen Angel?!" Rias said, looking at Issei. "Are you hurt? What happened?"

"She tried to corner me when I was leaving the place where I was doing the summon!" Issei responded, flailing his arms around in even more of a panic. "She was crazy strong! Nearly hacked my damn head of with a light scythe!" he continued to rant. "I swear, I don't know how she could even move so quickly, what with all those wings she had..."

"...Did she have more than one pair of wings?" Rias asked, going pale, gazing at Issei with a serious look on her face. Issei looked at her, seemingly trying to remember, before answering.

"...Yeah, she had six wings..." Issei responded, looking back at Rias. The other club members seemed to go pale, in addition to Rias.

"...You...encountered a six winged Fallen Angel?" Rias asked, folding her arms and walking over to Issei. Issei nodded slowly.

"...Is that...bad? Like, more bad than encountering one with two wings?" he asked, looking up at Rias intently.

"The amount of wings a Fallen Angel has denotes their power level." Akeno answered, a concerned look on her face. "...In other words. That Fallen Angel you encountered was even more powerful than the one that attacked you and Lyonette last night..." I looked at Issei, blinking, who simply looked back at me.

"...Looks like Yuuma may have some friends..." I joked, chuckling nervously before coughing awkwardly. "...So, in other words, we've got another Fallen Angel to worry about..." There was an awkward silence as everyone simply stood there, seemingly thinking.

"Ehhh...Either way, that aside, I got the summon done!" Issei said, awkwardly trying to change the subject, holding up his arm, it was at this point I noticed that his arm had something on it...A bracer, red with a green gemstone in the top. "I also unlocked that Sacred Gear thing, I think."

"...Indeed you have." Rias said, a troubled smile crossing her face. "I notice that you also unlocked yours, Lyonette." I squeaked at the sound of my name being mentioned as I looked down at my own arm, where the black gauntlet from earlier was still clasped on from the elbow down.

"...Oh...I didn't know that was still out." I responded, holding my hand up in front of me as Issei leaned over to look.

"Whoa...It looks like it's glowing, kinda." he stated, gazing at it curiously. "Do you know what it does?" I looked at Issei, putting my arm down and thinking.

"...No clue..." I said, gazing at my Sacred Gear curiously, flexing my hand, noticing how heavy, yet natural it felt on my arm.

"I don't know what mine does either..." Issei said, looking at his Sacred Gear and frowning a bit. Rias chuckled a bit and walked over to us, putting her hands on our shoulders.

"Well, at least you've both managed to activate your Sacred Gears." she reassured us, patting us on the shoulders. "Now that you've activated them, all you'll need to do from now on is decide if they should be on or off." a slow flicker of green light came from Issei's Sacred Gear as it disappeared from his arm, a small gasp being heard from him as it happened.

"Thank god...It was really gonna slow me down in my alone time." he commented, looking back up at Rias. I stared at my Sacred Gear, getting another look at it before I demanifested it.

"...Sorry to go back to this topic, but, you said that the more wings a Fallen Angel has, the more powerful they are, right?" I asked, looking up at Rias, who looked at me confused for a second, before nodding. "...If they're sending a six wing after him...Does that mean that they're pulling out all the stops just to see Issei dead?"

"It certainly seems that way..." Rias responded, looking at me quizzically. "...And, chances are, they probably know what Devil family he's serving now too...Which is certainly going to make things more difficult around here..."

"Yeah...I'm...so sorry." Issei said, looking down at the ground dejectedly, sighing slightly as he did so.

"...I can forgive you for it, after all, you're new to this, so you don't know many of the dangers and what-not..." Rias reassured us once again, before glaring at us both sternly. "But...Both of you, remember, even though you've both unlocked your Sacred Gears, you can't afford to be reckless, and considering my...plans, with you two." Rias looked down at the ground for a moment, seemingly pondering something, before looking back up. "...I really don't want to lose you two this early on."

"...I can't speak for Issei, but..." I spoke and smiled solenmly as I held my formerly gauntleted hand out to Rias. "...I'll try my hardest not to make things worse for you, miss Gremory." Rias smiled and shook my hand, her sight lingering on my Sacred Gear for a moment, before she looked me in the eyes.

"...Anyway, Lyonette..." she said, retracting her hand and folding her arms. "...What were you going to say before Issei came in?" I felt my heart sink as my eyes shot open, as I remembered what we were talking about in the first place.

_"...Dear lord, fucking save me from this situation..."_

**_"Don't bother saying anything like that, darling. God isn't listening."_**


	6. The Fang

_Chapter 6 - The Fang.  
_

After I got home the previous night, dinner was...awkward, to say the least, it was weird, not getting as many scornful remarks from Tylia, and I suppose my mom felt the same, since she keep looking between us, as if expecting us to start bantering and arguing.

"...So, how have things been?" my mother asked, flashing an awkward smile as she gazed at us, clearly pleasantly surprised that we weren't at each other's throats for once. I blinked, looking at her, flashing an equally awkward smile back.

"...Good. I've joined one of the school clubs." I said, taking a small bit of my chicken on my fork and eating it. My mother grinned at me, her face brightening a little.

"That's good to hear." she stated, straightening her back and tilting her head. "What club?" I opened my mouth, taking another bite of chicken before speaking again.

"The Occult Research Club." I responded, flicking my gaze to Tylia, who made a squeaking noise, looking back at me, before looking around. "So, Tylia ain't the only one in a club now.~" my mother blinked, narrowing her eyes at me in the stern fashion which I knew all too well.

"...You better not be doing anything deviant there, Lyonette." she snapped, a slightly intimidating look in her eyes as I quickly shook my head.

"Nope! Nothin' of the sort!" I stated, trying to sound as genuine and inconspicuous as possible. "Just...researching occult stuff, not summoning Dev-demons, not summoning demons."

"Hm...I suppose there's nothing wrong with learning about things like that..." my mom nodded slowly, seemingly not 100% convinced, still with the stern look in her eyes. "As long as you're not learning the wrong things."

"Heh...Nah." I said, rubbing the back of my head nervously. "The pres is pretty informed, to be honest..."

"...Right, good." my mother said, her expression softening a bit. "...I'll take your word for it. But, the moment I find out that you've been doing something deviant, you _will_ be punished severely." I nodded quietly, looking at Tylia, who seemed to be looking away from the table, as she normally did when she senses a tense situation.

"How've you been, sis?" I asked, smiling at Tylia, a smile on my face. "How's the Kendo club been?"

"...G-good..." Tylia said, taking a bite out of the beef burger she had on her plate, going quiet once again. I looked at Tylia's face, taking note of how uncomfortable she looked, and how she was occasionally stealing a glance at me.

"You sure?" I asked, tilting my head at her, trying to smile as warmly as I could. "...You look a little preoccupied." Tylia shook her head, swallowing her food.

"N-no...I'm, quite alright." she protested, still looking away from me. I sighed, realising that this wasn't going anywhere, and slowly rose to my feet.

"...I'm...going to go to my room..." I said, standing up, looking at my mother. "So...I'll be there if you need me." my mother nodded, as did Tylia. With that, I decided to resign to my room for the night, slipping out of my school clothes and putting my night clothes on, dropping my nightshirt on the ground by accident and bending over to pick it up, catching a glimpse of something underneath my bed, an old guitar, an acoutstic, to be specific.

_"Huh...Man, it's been ages since I last played that thing..."_ I thought, picking up my nightshirt and smiling a little. _"...I might try and play it tomorrow..."_

_**"So...How was it?"**_ I heard Equinox's voice echo in my mind, her tone inquisitive. _**"Your first day as a fully fledged Devil, I mean."**_

_"..Draining, to be completely honest." _I sighed, standing up properly then sitting on my bed and laying my head against the wall. _"...I mean, fuck, this entire day has been one giant snowball effect of freaky shit...It almost feels anticlimatic to end it in such a boring way..."_

A quiet giggle resounded in my head, followed by a sigh. _**"Trust me, Lyonette, you'll get used to it."**_ Equinox's tone was significantly more motherly than usual, soothing, almost. _**"...Either way, you should probably rest for now, you've learned a lot today."**_

_"...You're right, it's just going to make things worse if I overthink it..."_ I stretched, taking my glasses off, yawning slightly as I pulled my covers up and laid down, sighing a little as I did so.

_[Timeskip: The next morning.]_

The noise of my alarm clock was what woke me up, the grating beeping noise it made motivating me to get up to turn the damn thing off. I stretched and yawned as I slowly got up, reaching over to my bedside table and retrieving my glasses.

"...Another day, I guess..." for a moment, I forgot about all of the shit that happened the previous day, but when Tylia peeked into the room, it all came rushing back at me. "...G'morning, sis..." Tylia blinked, slowly opening the door, showing that she was already dressed.

"...Good morning, sister." she stated, seemingly taking a short moment to think about what she should say. "...Get dressed and come downstairs. Sir Hyodou is here and waiting for you." I nodded slowly, waving dismissively.

"Okay. Give me a minute then." I responded, going over to my wardrobe, looking at Tylia, noticing the look on her face. From the angle I could see her from before, she had most of her face obscured by the door, but from this angle, I could see that she had an uncharacteristically meek look on her face, a small blush on her face as she gazed at me from the doorway.

"R-right...I apologise..." she stated, suddenly backing away from the door, closing it as she did so. I blinked, musing over her strange behaviour, unsure of whether something else was going on with her, or...

_**"It's...really best not to dwell on that too much, Lyonette."**_ I heard Equinox urge me from inside my head, her voice sounding a slight bit weary. _**"Just get dressed and head downstairs."**_ I sighed, rolling my eyes, pulling my uniform out of the wardrobe and putting it on, heading downstairs soon after, where Issei and my mother were, with Tylia being nowhere to be found.

"Hey, Lyo! You're finally down here!" Issei exclaimed, looking at me, smiling a very slight bit. I nodded slowly, looking around, before looking at my mom.

"...Where's Tylia?" I asked, tilting my head slightly. My mom took a sip of tea, looking at me.

"She already left for school." she stated with a smile. "Speaking of...Shouldn't you two be doing the same?"

"...Yeahhh...We probably should." I responded, holding my head and looking at Issei. We left the house as Issei sighed quietly, looking over at him, I could tell he was somewhat troubled by something, it was practically written on his face. "...You okay?" Issei nodded quietly, looking back at me.

"Yeah...I'm fine, other than screwing everything up last night..." he stated, looking down and at his left hand. "I ended up drawing more attention to us, which is going to make things a pain in the ass for all of us..." I frowned slightly, putting a hand on Issei's shoulder.

"If it's about that, we'll have to discuss it later, since...let's face it." I looked around, blinking, looking out for anyone who may have heard us. "...There might be someone listening..." Issei sighed again, looking up at me, frowning a little as he opened his mouth to speak, this was, however, cut off by the sound of a squeak, followed by the crash of something solid hitting the ground, which drew the attention of Issei and I. On the ground, near us, a girl was laid, blonde hair and green eyes, one thing that was immedietly noticable was the fact that her dress had slipped up, and her panties were on display, I felt a small bit of blush cross my face as I blinked, looking away and covering my eyes.

"Woah..." I heard Issei state, his voice radiating a perverted energy of which I heard from him a lot. I rolled my eyes, stealing another glance at the girl, noticing another thing. Around her neck was a necklace, a necklace with a Christian cross on, along with that, she was wearing clothing that look reminicent of a nun.

_"...You've gotta be fucking kidding me...A nun?"_ I walked over and helped her up, a somewhat surprised squeak coming from the girl. "Uh...You okay?" Issei glared at me, as if pissed off that I was stealing his thunder.

"Y-yeah...I'm fine..." the girl stuttered lightly, looking at me as she got to her feet. I could feel a slight bit of weakness just being in the precence of this girl, but, considering the fact that I'm a Devil and she's something holy...The reason for that was fairly obvious.

"Uh...Sorry, my friend and I need to go." I stated, trying to sound as inconspicuous as possible as I slowly stepped back towards Issei. The girl looked down at the suitcase she dropped on the floor.

"...Oh, okay..." she said with a sigh, bending down to start picking up her things as I began to usher Issei away. Issei glared at me, looking back at the girl, then back to me.

"What the hell, Lyo!" he hissed at me, looking pretty pissed off with me. "I could have got a new girlfriend there!"

"And you remember what happened _last_ time, don't you?" I hissed back, glaring back at him. "That girfriend turned out to be a Fallen Angel, which killed us both!"

"Did that girl look like a Fallen Angel to you?" Issei responded, his glare not letting up.

"Did Yuuma look like a Fallen Angel to you?" I seemingly struck a nerve by saying that, as Issei looked a bit taken aback, before sighing and shaking his head.

"...That's true..." he agreed, folding his arms and sighing.

"That girl was very clearly a holy sister or something...I'm not sure how dangerous it'd be for us to associate with her, but it sure as hell isn't a good idea regardless!" I stated, staring at Issei and folding my arms. Issei glared at me, folding his arms in return.

"Come on, it can't be that bad of an idea!" he complained, shaking his head. "I mean, did you see how hot that chick was?!"

"And what about if she finds out about you being a Devil? About _both_ of us being Devils?" I shoved him a little, shaking my head at him, mimicking him. "We're _both_ screwed."

"Ugh! Fine!" Issei growled, looking away from me and sighing.

[Timeskip: After school.]

After an incredibly uneventful and boring school day, Issei and I walked over to the old school building, leaving the chattering of all the other students behind as we stepped inside and went into the ORC's room, where Rias, Akeno, Koneko and Kiba were all sat, watching us as we entered.

"Afternoon, Rias." I stated with a tired smile, waving at the red-head and sighing. "Sorry if we're a little late...Teacher decided to keep us behind a little longer than normal."

"It's alright." Rias reassured us, smiling as she stood up. "In fact, you're pretty much right on time." I blinked, confused a little.

"We are?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Well...You are, anyway." Rias said, putting a hand on her hip. "There's something of an...I wouldn't say _errand_, but...something for you and Kiba to go and do." my confusion and intrigue disappaited, now replaced by a feeling of disappointment.

"...You what?" I responded, a slight bit of irritation plain in my voice as I stared at Rias, who defensively raised her hand.

"I know you and him don't see eye-to-eye, but hear me out." she stated, sounding almost scolding as she did so. "Kiba will be taking you to a small pawn shop in town, you and him are going to try and find a weapon for you." I narrowed my eyes and raised my right hand, my Sacred Gear materialising in a flicker of yellow-red light.

"Uh, hello?" I responded, pointing to my Sacred Gear with my other hand, blinking. "I've got this! I don't need any other weapons when I can just smack somebody in the face with this fucker!" Rias narrowed her eyes at me, frowning slightly.

"Just because you have a Sacred Gear doesn't mean that you can take on the world, Lyonette." she stated, a slight bit of agitation in her voice. "I told you this yesterday."

"Even still! If I can parry and block my sister's attacks with this thing, I'm sure I can fight with it!" I stated, folding my arms and pouting a little. "I ain't no weakling, you know!"

"I'm by no means saying that you are." Rias lashed back, her voice a fair bit colder than normal. "All I'm saying is that you can't just rely squarely on your Sacred Gear, you _will_ need a proper weapon to fight with." I sighed, glaring over at Kiba, realising that Rias wasn't going to let up, frowning.

"...Fine." I groaned, putting a hand on my hip and sighing once more. "When are we going?" Rias put her hand over her face for a moment, before looking at me.

"As soon as you feel comfortable doing so." she stated, folding her arms, still looking a tiny bit pissed off. I nodded slowly, groaning a little.

"Just...Let me rest for a moment." I stated, sitting down and holding my head. _"I want to be in a semi-sound frame of mind while having to deal with mr blonde and popular over there."_ the chair next to me creaked a tiny bit as Issei sat down, looking at me.

"...You okay, Lyo?" he asked, a slight frown on his face, clearly no more impressed about this than I was. "Sounds like you've got a lot on your hands here."

"I'll be _fine_." I mumbled, looking back at him and folding my arms. "I just have to spend half an hour with Kiba fuckin' Yuuto, I'm sure I can handle it..."

"You sure?" Issei responded, sighing a little. "That sounds like a fate worse than death, to be honest..." he continued to mumble angrily, crossing his arms and laying back in the chair.

"...It's not gonna be that bad, I hope." I responded, stealing a look over at Kiba, who was just stood around waiting for me, by the look of it. "...Emphasis on _I hope_."

"I guess..." Issei mumbled, looking at Kiba in addition me. "...Good luck with it, I guess."

"I'm..." I sighed, standing up, looking back at Issei. "...Probably gonna need it."

"Are you ready, Lyonette?" Kiba asked, his usual calm unwavering as he glanced over at me with a somewhat smug smile on his face.

"Yeaah..." I groaned, putting my hands in the pockets of my jacket and walking over to him. "Lead the way, Yuuto."

"Have fun, you two~!" Akeno stated cheerfully, smiling over at us and waving. I winced, shaking my head at her enthusiasm about the situation. We soon departed from the clubroom, walking out of the old school house and through the main gates, catching the eyes of any students left standing around, leading to a few scornful/jealous glares, ones which I could really do without right now.

"This is going to be actual hell..." I muttered under my breath, looking to my side, giving a glare to anyone who glared back.

**_"Oh, don't be such a baby, Lyonette, surely this Kiba boy can't be that bad?"_** Equinox's voice echoed around my mind, her tone the same tone my mother would give me whenever she caught be doing something she didn't approve of. _**"And don't bad-mouth Hell! You're a Devil, remember?"**_

_"Shut up! You're not my mom!"_

"Are you okay, Lyonette?" Kiba's voice, of all things, was what brought me out of my thoughts. "You look mad about something."

"Nah...Everything's _fine_." I lied, trying to sound as genuine as possible without a growl in my voice.

"Are you still mad about Rias not letting you use your Sacred Gear as a weapon?" he pryed, still with that smug-ass expression on his face. I glared at him, silently stating that I didn't want to speak of why I was mad. "We're going to be at the shop soon, you know, and the person running the place may think bad of you if you give them the death glare like that."

"...What am I meant to do? Fake a smile or some shit?" I responded, glaring at him harder, folding my arms. "Because I ain't doing that."

"Well, you're going to have to change your mind about it quickly, since we're more or less outside the door." upon looking up, I was somewhat surprised to see that, seemingly, we were already outside the shop, it looked more or less the same as any other shop on the street, but it had a slight air of mystery around it, with some rather old looking objects being displayed in the windows, seemingly antiques, judging by their fancy styling and ornate looks, with a sign on the top of the shop which read 'G&K Pawn Shop'. "In fact, we're already here." he added, walking inside the shop, the door jingling as he did so. I blinked, looking over the shop again, before sighing and stepping towards the door, opening it and entering.

The shop looked fairly different on the inside, seemingly a lot bigger than it appeared outside, it was decorated with wood, with metal beams going up the walls to reinforce them, on the shelves, various different items from various different time periods were displayed, from small trinkets from ages long past, to more modern objects, such as old board-games with ratty boxes and a small box with 'MANGA, SFW ONLY (ask for NSFW stuff, we're not displaying that after last time)' written on it, which presumabely contained a selection of second hand manga. Stood behind the counter, was a rather perky young woman, seemingly not far into her twenties, she had light brown hair which was tied into a pair of long twin-tails, along with a pair of brown-red eyes, slightly obscured by a pair of semi-framed glasses which sat upon the end of her nose, she watched us enter with a slight smile on her face.

"Hello there, mister Yuuto! It's been a while since you were here!" the woman stated, a slight accent in her voice, looking at Kiba with a smile. "How have you been?"

"I've been alright." Kiba responded, flashing a smile back at the woman. "I've been entrusted with bringing our new member here into the shop so she can get something to attempt to defend herself with." the woman thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Right...Take it you're wanting to go in back, then?" she replied, folding her arms. "Since...Y'know, we can't exactly keep swords and antique firearms on the shelves."

"If it isn't too much trouble." Kiba responded, walking over to the counter as the woman opened up the flap at the side, letting us through. Kiba looked back at me, then nodded, walking through and through the door behind the counter. I looked at the woman, who simply smiled at me and stood next to the door.

"...After you, newbie.~" she stated, with a slight teasing tone in her voice as she spoke and held the door open for me, giggling slightly. I raised an eyebrow, looking at her with a quizzical glare, before walking through the counter-flap and going through the door, hearing the woman walk in behind me and shut the door. The back room was rather...cluttered, to say the least, shelves lined the walls, each of them carrying various different trinkets and objects, from strange looking swords and shields, to jewelry and various types of antique bits and bobs, a single lightbulb hung from the celing, lighting the room surprisingly well- although, that may have been the work of my fancy new Devil senses. I turned to look at the brown haired woman, blinking in a confused fashion.

_"Damn...Tylia would love this place."_ I mused, walking over to one of the shelves and inspecting a fancy looking shield. _"Considering her affinity for medieval shit and knights and all that, this'd be like a candy shop for her."_ I looked at the woman and Kiba, who seemed to be idily talking, alwhile occasionally stealing a glance at me to see what I was doing, I simply went back to looking on the shelves, after all, we'd been sent here for a _weapon_, so I probably shouldn't have been dawdling. I continued to browse the area, occasionally looking at a pretty looking piece of jewelry which I thought would look nice on me, or a little trinket I thought looked cool, like a box of guitar plectrums which was coloured red, but my gaze was drawn away as I noticed something laid behind the box, something red and shiny, I prodded the box out of the way, looking at the object behind it, reaching out to grab it, before my thoughts were cut off.

"Uh...Hey? Lyonette, is it?" I heard the woman pipe up, her voice sounding a little shaky. "I-if you're looking at what I think you're looking at...I wouldn't suggest touching that." I grabbed the object, looking at the woman, who's expression was that of shock.

"...Why?" I asked, bluntly, putting a hand on my hip, then holding up the object to look at it. It was a sword, coloured black and red, with the blade looking somewhat jagged, a slight pattern in the material looking somewhat like the scales of a dragon, with each 'scale' having a slight red highlight to it, the middle of the blade looked crystal-like and seemed to very slightly glow a pale yellow, it looked very fancy, intricate, and for some reason, it felt right be holding it. "...It's a cool lookin' sword."

"...You...actually picked it up?" the woman said, slowly walking over to me, looking at the sword, a look of confusion on her face.

"Was she not supposed to have been able to...?" Kiba asked, looking at us both, looking just as confused as the woman.

"...Not even my master has been able to pick this thing up..." the woman looked up at me, a slight look of intrigue in her eyes. "How did you do it? How powerful of a Devil _are_ you?" I went pale, stepping back a bit, wondering how this lady managed to figure out that I was a Devil.

"...W-what?" I asked, clearing my throat and looking to the side slightly, pursing my lips nervously. The woman put her hand on her hip, frowning a little.

"You heard me! It's plain to tell that you're a Devil, since you're part of Lady Gremory's peerage!" she stated, agitation in her tone, a slight glare in her eyes. "That thing has a seal on it which can stop_ High Class_ Devils from wielding it, you were recently reborn as a Devil, right?" the woman leaned into me, her face less than a foot away from my own. "How on _Earth_ did you pick this sword up?" I stood still for a second, backing up a little more to give myself breathing room, frowning slightly, managing to piece together the fact that this girl seemed to know a thing or two about Devils.

"...I picked it up." I responded, not knowing how else to explain myself. "I used my hands, and picked the damn thing up."

"No headache?"

"No."

"No...nausea?"

"Nadda."

The woman stared at me, then at Kiba, then back at me again, then at the sword, she looked agitated, confused, and overall looked like she'd just found out that her whole life was a lie.

"...I don't know _how_ you managed to wield such a strange piece of artifice, but..." she looked back at me, folding her arms and nodding. "Surely, if you're able to hold it while my master and no others cannot...It's only fair that I allow you to have it." I stayed dead quiet as the woman spoke, slowly glancing at the sword in my right hand, it's blade slowly seeming to pulse, I slowly directed my gaze back at the woman.

"...How much?" the woman smiled and shook her head.

"Free of charge, since you clearly have something that allows you to wield it."

Kiba looked over at me, smiling a little and nodding. I blinked, before smiling back.

"Thank you, miss...?" I began, looking at the woman, expecting her to finish.

"Florence." she responded, holding her hand out for me shake. "Florence William-Pelzer." I shook her hand, smiling and nodding.

"Thanks, Florence."

_**"See? I told you that that Kiba kid didn't look so bad.~"**_

_"Equinox, for the love of-"_

_[Timeskip: Back at the clubroom.]_

I barely remember the walk back. I spent most of my time staring at my new sword, admiring the craftsmanship of it and overall how cool it looked. Before we left, Florence had given me a red scabbard, seemingly the one made for the sword itself, which was currently swaying around off my hip, the cold leather occasionally slapping against my thigh, because of all of this, I'd zoned out, thinking about what made this sword so special that it needed to be sealed to specific demographic of users. Before I knew it, I was back at the club room, standing in the doorway, looking at everyone, who were seemingly getting ready to leave, with Rias standing in front of me.

"Lyonette?" she said, looking a little confused. "...Hello? Earth to Lyonette?" I blinked, rubbing my head, then looked at Rias.

"Y-yeah...Sorry..." I stuttered, standing up straight, looking down at my sword, then back at Rias. "What's up?"

"May I have a look at the sword that you got?" she asked, looking down at it and tilting her head. "Kiba said that it had some kind of strange property to it." I blinked, looking down at it, before unsheathing it and passing it over, almost as soon as Rias touched the handle, a small volt of energy came from the sword, she cried out a little, drawing her hand away, a moment passed before she spoke again. "...As I thought...It's user-locked."

"...Uh...what?" I responded, still not 100% back in the frame of mind to be having a conversation with somebody.

"The sword that you got appears to have a seal on it which locks itself to a specific user." Rias began speaking again, folding her arms and putting a finger on the side of her face thoughtfully. "Effectively, only _you_ can wield it, though, the question is why it's only you specifically...Did you do anything in particular when you picked it up?"

"...Mmm...No, I don't think I did." I responded, not remembering doing something special at all. "I just saw it, wanted to look at it, picked it up, the shopkeep started making a fuss about me picking it up...and that's it." Rias seemed to think over this, looking at the sword, before seeming thinking of something.

"...You picked it up with your right hand, didn't you, Lyonette?" she asked, her gaze not faultering away from the sword, a small spark in her eyes.

"Yeah...Why?" I replied, tilting my head and looking down at my sword. Rias smiled a little, seemingly coming to a revalation, nodding a little.

"I don't want to say _much_, but..." she looked up at my face, putting her hand on her hip, staring for a moment, before speaking once more. "...If it acted this way for the reason I'm thinking it did, then...Your Sacred Gear may be a little more special than I first thought." It took a moment to process these words, I could feel myself zoning out again, however, this was interrupted by Issei suddenly speaking.

"Are you kidding me?! Lyo got a cool sword and I didn't get anything?!" he exclaimed, running over and looking at the sword, frowning. "Oh, why do I always get the shitty end of the stick?!"

"...From what I can see from your Sacred Gear, Issei, it seems to be sufficent for you to fight with, after all, we don't even know what Lyonette's Sacred Gear does yet." Rias responded, looking at Issei. "That's why I sent her and Kiba out to get her an actual weapon, because we've yet to see what she's properly capable of."

"My Sacred Gear is literally just a weird object that appears on my wrist!" Issei responded, manifesting his Sacred Gear, warrenting a head-shake from Rias.

"Unlike Lyonette's, I have a good idea of what your Sacred Gear may do," she began, folding her arms, before looking at my right hand. "Lyonette's has a much different energy to your own, don't get me wrong, it's similar, it's just that Lyonette's seems more..." Rias looked up, thoughtfully, looking at me, then at Issei. "...Unstable."

"U-unstable?" I asked, blinking as I gazed at Rias. "What do you mean?" Rias spent another moment thinking over everything, before sighing and shaking her head, a forced-looking smile on her face.

"Don't worry about it. You'll be fine, Lyonette." she reassured me, patting me on the head. Suddenly, the pair of doors on the other side of the room opened, with Akeno walking out of them, Rias looked at her, quizzically.

"Akeno? I thought you went home for the night..." Rias queried, looking at Akeno with slight confusion on her face. Akeno cleared her throat, her expression somewhat grim.

"...Well, you see...We've had reports of a Stray Devil running rampant." she answered, walking over to us, looking around. Rias seemed to look surprised for a moment, then looked at me, smiling.

"...Well...Lyonette? It looks like you'll be able to test this new weapon of yours.~"

* * *

Hello everybody! Sorry for the wait on this chapter, life began getting in the way, and I was incredibly demotivated, all thanks to the fact that I forgot to save and lost a lot of work...But I'm back! And since there's a few reviews I wanna address, I'll answer them!

**OnetimeMuffin:**  
**"Ok so is Lyonette gonna be paired with the guy you mentioned before or with Issei or with a girl, just out of curiosity. But otherwise fantastic story so far I'm loving and keep it up"**

First of all, thank you! I 've been attempting to try my best with this story, so it's nice for people to like it! To answer the question, Lyonette is, at present, going to be paired up with the boyfriend she mentioned (I mean, shit, they're dating anyway), however, she may be drawing a bit of attention to herself, especially amongst the girls...And, I have no intention of pairing Lyo up with Issei, at present, they will remain friends and nothing more.

**Chucklenuts:  
very bad story**  
** i do not like girls they have cooties**  
** dxd should NOT have female protag, very bad, all people who like this are BABIES and are stinky poo poos**  
** GO SUCK A FAT HAIR N*PPLE ADMIRAL HEADPTA**

First of all, how old are you? Five? I don't think you should be on the internet, nevermind watching High School DxD. Second of all, I'll do what I want, Chucklenuts, and third of all *headpat. I honestly find this review hillarious, since I got the notification about it while I was in call with Silver, we both got a chuckle out of how dumb it was.~

Anyway, once again, sorry for the wait, hopefully chapter 7's wait isn't as long, but in case it is, sorry in advance. Thank you all for reading, and see you all in chapter 7! Or, maybe I may see you in the other project I'm working on...Who knows?~


	7. Toe-To-Toe

**This chapter contains some rather heart heavy themes, if you have any bad memories associated with suicide or self-harm, please read with caution, the last thing I want is for me to upset anybody. Please be careful.**

_Chapter 7 - Toe-To-Toe_

[Perspective of: Rias Gremory]

_"...So...May I ask..." I began to say to him, looking up at him as he continued to pack his bags. "...Why do you want her protecting so badly? I know that you love her, but...surely, nothing will happen to her while you're gone." he stopped in his tracks, frowning slightly, a sigh crossing his lips._

_"...She means a lot to me, Rias, I don't want anything to happen to Lyo, which I why I asked you." he grumbled, his gaze never faultering from his luggage._

_"But...as I said, it shouldn't be a problem?" I tilted my head, putting my hand under my chin. "...Are you perhaps not telling me something here, Copper? Like, the reason you're so worried about her?"_

_"It's as I said! I love her, I want to make sure she's still alive by the time I come back!" he shouted, keeping his gaze on the bags, but stealing a glance at me, as if he said something to hide._

_"She's a human, Copper, she isn't a Devil like us, she shouldn't get into any trouble, provided she doesn't stick her nose where it doesn't belong." I responded, folding my arms and staring down the blonde-haired boy._

_"I'm not on about that!"_

_"Then what __**are**__ you on about?"_

_Copper sighed, closing his eyes as he seemed to collect his thoughts. "...Rias, stop it. I have my reasons, and I don't fancy remembering what those reasons were." I frowned, deciding that I wouldn't be taking no for an answer._

_"Perhaps telling me these reasons may help?" I stated, my arms remaining folded as I stood up. "Because I'm afraid that I can't protect her if I don't know what to protect her from." I seemingly struck a nerve, as Copper's eyes seemed to widen, before he closed them again and sighed, standing up straight and clearing his throat, opening his eyes to glare at me, his red eyes piercing into me._

_"...Back when me and Lyonette were in third grade...We'd become pretty close friends at this point, willing to confide in one another and all that..." he began, sitting on one of his suitcases, looking at me. I nodded slowly, waiting for him to continue. "...She'd started coming to school late, and looked progressively more tired and unhappy each day, which was...jarring to say the least, since, she was always a pretty perky and happy girl." I smiled a little, thinking over this little tidbit, before he began to speak again._

_"One day, Lyo came to me, all sad and depressed, and, let me tell you...I got all depressed just from looking at her." he continued, his voice faulting a little as he put a hand to his face. "...I'd...never seen her so fucking sad...and, frankly, I never want to again..."_

_"And that's why you want me to protect her?" I asked, keeping my arms folded, pursing my lips a little. "As sweet and adorable as that is, I don't-"_

_"Let me get to that part." he snapped, seemingly tearing up a bit. "Don't rush me, Rias." he put his face in his hands, seemingly mentally preparing himself. "...S-she told me that her mom had be shouting at her a lot more, recently, calling her a deviant- a heretic, scolding her a lot more, being kind of emotionally abusive...and apparently, it was because her mom had apparently found out me being a Devil, or...she'd found out 'something horrible' about me..." I opened my mouth to speak again, now thinking that he wanted me to protect her from her mother, but he started to speak once more. "I-I didn't know what to fucking say...She asked me what her mom was on about, and..." he looked on the verge of breaking down. "...That look in her eyes...fucking hell, she looked betrayed...and, I couldn't just blow my cover, I couldn't just tell her I was a Devil, especially considering all the religous shit that harlot of a mom she has put in her head...so, I told her that, I told her I couldn't tell her, that it was a __**secret**__...and..." he sniffled, putting his face in his hands. "...she just...broke down!" I blinked, slowly walking over to him and patted him on the back. "She broke down and ran away from me!"_

_"...There, there..." I tried to reassure him, suddenly feeling a little guilty, once again, I tried to speak, but he began talking._

_"...I went to check on her the next day, and...her mom wasn't in, nor was her sister, but..." he was clearly holding back tears, his eyes were watering as he spoke. "...I was worried sick! I ran upstairs to her room, and went inside, and..." it was at this point, that he began to sob uncontrollably into his hands, in clear distress as he slumped over and cried his eyes out. "...She was...she was stood on a chair, with a rope around her neck, looking ready to fucking jump. She tried to kill herself, Rias. She was fully prepared to take her own fucking life!" he slumped back over, continuing to sob and cry out in sorrow, as all these memories which he supposedly repressed flooded back to him. "I-I stopped her. I gave her a hug, and confessed to her on the spot...And...that's what I'm afraid of. I'm afraid she'll try it again..." he slowly brought his face from behind his hands, looking at me with red, tearful eyes and a trembling lip. "...Rias...Swear to me...Swear to me that you won't let anything happen to Lyonette. I don't want to leave for America worrying that the love of my life could be deepthroating the business end of a shotgun, or hanging by a rope from her ceiling!"_

_I was taken aback, my mouth agape, trying to figure out what to say in this situation. I'd never seen him so distraught, not even when he was talking about leaving to start with, it was a jarring situation, seeing him like this, as I searched my mind for things to say, I put my hand on his back, rubbing it, the words finally coming to me._

_"...You have my word, Copper."_

"Rias?" my flashback was cut off by a voice, their tone questioning and confused, I looked up to see who it was, finding it to be none other than Lyonette herself. "...You okay? You kinda zoned out and stopped walking..." I looked at her confused face, her odd yellow eyes gazing at me as she put a hand on her hip. "Remember, you're meant to be the one leading the way."

"...Yes. Of course." I walked by Lyonette, stealing another glance at her as I passed, watching her gaze follow me with a look of confusion on her face. It was somewhat hard to believe that this girl had Copper worrying so much. When I first saw her, sure, she was quiet, rather formal and maybe got angry a little too easily, but nothing about her inherently seemed depressive, to me, she just seemed like a simple girl who's been thrown into a world she doesn't understand yet.

"...What are we even looking for, anyway? What is this Stray Devil thing you and Akeno were on about?" she asked, her tone was fairly demanding, seemingly somewhat annoyed, even. "I've been asking the whole way here, and not one of you've answered me." I sighed, preparing to begin my explaination, clearing my throat.

"A Stray Devil is a Devil servant who defied their Devil Master, often, they kill their masters to gain freedom for their own selfish benefits." I stated, watching Lyonette's expression carefully, seeing it change not a jot. "As a result, they tend to be a lot more unpredictable than other Devils...The one we're dealing with has been luring humans into an abandoned house and eating them."

"Right, gotcha." Lyonette stated, nodding and drawing her sword. "So, we're gonna go kill this thing and bring some kind of retribution or some shit?" she asked, her eyes shining a little, as if she thought the idea sounded awesome.

"That's a...rather glorified way of putting it.~" I responded, chuckling a little at the girl's excitement and enthusiasm, folding my arms with a smile. "But...I suppose you're right.~"

"So...is this the place?" Issei asked, looking around at our surroundings. I looked back in front of us, seeing our destination, the aforementioned abandoned house, positioned menacingly in the middle of the forest, fairly large and fancy looking, with what looked to be a ruined observatory.

"Indeed it is." I stated, gesturing everyone to follow me as I walked to the heavy wooden doors, mentally readying myself as I pushed them open, a creak being heard as they revealed the desecrated interior of the building, it reeked a horrid energy, the likes of which I had felt many times before.

_"Yep...It's here alright."_ I thought to myself, glancing at Lyonette and Issei. "Issei, Lyonette, are either of you familiar with chess?"

"Yeah...Sort of." Issei responded, tilting his head, slightly confused. "...I've played it, but I totally suck."

"I made my sister cry when I won a game against her once." Lyonette said, giggling a little before clearing her throat and putting her scarf over her mouth. "...Good times.~" she added, her voice muffled a little. I opened my mouth, preparing to explain the Evil Pieces system to them...But then, I thought of something...

_"Why explain it when I can just show them?"_ I thought to myself, clearing my throat. "I want you both to keep a close eye on your fellow servants tonight."

"...Okay?" Lyonette responded, her voice still muffled by her scarf as she spoke. "...What does that have to do with chess?"

"You'll see in due time." I responded, looking around for a possible area where the stray could be. Almost immediately, my question was answered.

"...Now what could that foul, fecal smell be?~" a relatively mature and feminine voice rhetorically asked, a bit of shuffling and a long sniff being heard. "Mm...But something smells quite delicous, as well.~"

"This is...no." Lyonette said, seemingly losing her train of thought as she drew her weapon, the loud sound of scraping blade against scabbard being heard from her. All of a sudden, a large figure lumbered out from behind one of the pillars in the room above us, a nude female figure with long, flowing black hair, showed herself, mostly, her lower half cloaked in the shadows of the house. "Oh, what the fuck!"

_"Viser."_

"I see big boobies!~" Issei exclaimed, his voice sounding a mixture of happy and hopelessly conflicted, warrenting a glare from Lyonette.

"Issei! Get your mind out of the damn gutter and focus!" she yelled at him, turning towards the Stray and pointing her crimson blade at it, leering and beginning to speak. "Hey! Freakshow! You forgot your fuckin' clothes!" I sighed, knowing full well that any chance of getting a word in was gone as Viser began to giggle, tilting her head tauntingly.

"Oh?~ You've got quite the mouth on you for a little one, haven't you?~" she taunted, her eyes fixed on Lyonette keenly as she licked her lips. "That should make you all the more satisfying to devour!~"

"I ain't scared of you!" Lyonette growled, her voice muffled, slowly moving forward shakily, her arms clutching her sword tightly as she moved her scarf from over her face. "We're here to end you and your traitorous ways, stray!" she added, a little glint in her eyes as she spoke, trying to sound as threatening and heroic as possible. The stray slowly swayed out of the shadows, revealing a horribly mutated lower half to her, where her legs once were, there was now a large body, with matted fur covering the top of it, each fold of it's abhorrent flesh visible and trembling, a pair of strong, goat-like legs protruding from the bottom of the creature, an archway of horror as it raised a horrid, pallid, sharp nailed hand, I immedietely heard a yelp from Lyonette as she stepped back.

"Your shakiness betrays you, little one.~" the horrid monstrosity had a sick grin on her face as her wicked giggles turned to maniacal cackling. "Were it not for the delicious terror I could smell from you, perhaps I'd believe you!~"

"Viser! You betrayed your master to fufil the lustful wants and desires that have consumed you," I began, attempting to draw the Stray's attention from Lyonette, stepping forward, my voice echoing throughout the broken room. "Your sins are worthy of a thousand Hells, in the name of the house of Gremory, and all who stand beside us," I decided to add in a little dramatic pose, to make more of a distraction. "Begone! Lest you perish and never be remembered!" a few seconds of silence followed, before Lyonette let out a fangirlish squeal, hopping up and down on the spot.

"That was fucking awesome...!" I heard her whisper-yell, slowly trying to contain herself again, clearing her throat awkwardly. Viser slowly began laughing again, sighing and glaring at me.

"It seems you've gotten that one excited.~" she teasingly stated, slowly looking back at Lyonette and licking her lips. "It'd be a shame to let her go to waste now."

"H-hey!" I heard Lyonette shout, stepping back. "What are you implying with that!?"

_"It looks like we're doing this the hard way then..." _I gave a small nod to Kiba and Koneko, signaling them to begin the assault. Almost immediately, the two of them sprung into action, Kiba drew his blade, the scrape of metal swiftly ringing out around the ruined room as he began charging Viser, Koneko on the other hand, simply began to walk towards the creature, her expression completely indifferent. "You asked how what I said had to do with chess...And I shall now explain." I stated, diverting my gaze back to Lyonette and Issei, noting their respective impressed and shocked expressions. "Devil Servants, upon being brought into the fold of a Devil household, are assigned a chess piece to them," I turned to look at Kiba, watching him dart around, slashing his sword at Viser with vigor and strength, slicing the horror's arms off in a matter of seconds. "Kiba, for example, is my Knight, specialising in speed, not to mention being a devastating swordsman, if you can tell from looking at him."

"W-wait! So each of your servants has a chess piece assigned to them..." Lyonette began, her expression a picture of awe and confusion. "...Nevermind, continue." I turned my attention to the beast, as Koneko began to approach it, watching as the Stray's face twisted into a horrible, warped expression, it's lower chest ripping and tearing itself asunder, a large jaw making itself known in the flesh of the abomination, a loud roar resounded throughout the house as it brought itself down, its jaws snapping shut, grasping Koneko in it's second mouth, beginning to laugh uncontrollabley. Lyonette gasped, blinking and stepping back further, clutching the grip of her sword, trembling.

"Wait for it..." I said with a smile, keeping my gaze trained on Viser's lower half, hearing the Stray's lunatic giggling take a turn, gagging into a horrid cry as Koneko tore the jaws of the mouth open, simply keeping it open, her expression not faultering in the slightest...In typical, Koneko fashion, really. I spied Lyonette, seemingly rearing back a little clutching her sword, her expression that of awe and determination...In the heat of the moment, I thought nothing of her stance, as if she was about to run head-first into the enemy. "Koneko is a Rook, an adept in strength and durability." I looked at Lyonette and Issei, my hand on my hip as I continued. "That bite won't have hurt in the slightest.~"

"End of the line!" Koneko cried, her voice still indifferent and void of emotion, turning around suddenly and delivering a bone-breaking sucker punch to Viser's chest, the beast screaming out, its voice deafening, its second set of teeth shattering from such a devastating blow, setting it on a crash-course straight into a pillar, slamming it's head into it with unrivalled force and power, smashing the pillar into pieces, each bit of rubble crashing down upon its distorted face as it laid there, armless and helpless, I looked to Akeno, about to give her the nod to take the finishing strike...but such a occasion was not to be, as I heard a loud battlecry come from behind me, drawing my attention away from my friend, and to the bespecaled blonde, who was charging head-first into Viser.

"Geeet FUCKED!" Lyonette screamed as she swung her sword at Viser's neck, the beast opening it's eyes and screaming its lungs out, it's tongue lashing out of its mouth and swiping the blade from Lyonette's hand, throwing it aside, before swiping back at her and knocking her off her feet, a cry being heard from Lyonette as she slammed to the floor, looking up fearfully as Viser began to stand once more, her arms seeming to regenerate, but more burlier and strong, the hands tapering to sharp, twisted claws, the shattered remains of the being's lower chest reformed, it's teeth sharper than ever, a menacing aura of dread filling the room.

_"Surely she...can't have gotten that powerful?"_

"How cute~!" Viser laughed, her voice raspy and warped, a forceful wind billowing through the room, blowing all of us off our feet, throwing us all against the wall. "That you have the fucking _guts_, to charge at me so carelessly~! Truely, natural selection is alive and well~!"

"L-Lyo! Get outta there!" Issei cried out, trying to resist the wind fruitlessly. I felt myself begin to panic, knowing full well that _something_ was not right, that something had gone terribly wrong.

"Lyonette! As your master, I order you to run!" I yelled, trying to get her to save herself from her inevitable demise...but, she didn't seem to hear me, she quickly got onto her side, forcing herself to her feet, staring up at Viser with fear in her eyes, scrambling for her sword.

"I'm going to savour every morsal of your pathetic little body, you reckless little slut~!" Viser maniacally shouted, delirious and clearly too far gone for any reason to be taken, grabbing Lyonette with a gaunt hand and thrusting her towards her gaping maw, the sorrowful cry of Issei yelling her name being deafening in my panicked state. I squeezed my eyes shut, I couldn't bare to watch, my mind racing with thoughts of my failure, my failure to keep my promise to Copper...However, I felt my thoughts shatter, as if pieced by a sharp blade, my eyes snapping open as I looked towards the scene in front of me...

Lyonette was grasped in Viser's hand, her eyes squeezed shut, as if she was accepting her fate, but the monster's maw was forced open by a congregation of black vines, each with sharp, pricking thorns serrating out of them, lacerating the callous skin of the mouth, there was a moment of deafening silence, before Viser let out a loud shriek, causing Lyonette to open her eyes, a loud yelp being heard from her as she was dropped, watching the monstrosity that just threatened her very life stumble back, a gutful of thorned vines...and on Lyonette's arm, was a black gauntlet the same black gauntlet which adorned her arm when she came back from her summon request a few nights ago.

"Whoa...what the fuck...?" Lyonette mused, looking at her Sacred Gear, which was clutching her blade, both the red highlights and the material of her blade glowing red, small black vines adorning her gauntlet, she stared for a moment, before chuckling, looking up at Viser, a smug look of determination on her face, tears still in her eyes from the shock of it all. "...Alright, freakshow..." she put her left leg back, moving her sword arm forward, taking a fencing stance. "Let's fuckin' dance, shall we?" she said, the vines retracting into the ground, leaving Viser's torso a bloody, gorey mess, blood dripping from each tooth and onto the floor. I gazed in awe, pleasantly surprised by such a turn of events...I could only imagine the joy that Lyonette felt with such an action!

_[Perspective of: Lyonette Griffin]_

_"Holy fucking shit! I feel so fucking coooool!"_ I giggled happily, stepping closer to the Stray Devil, holding my sword in hand.

"You...little whore!" Viser growled, throwing her head back and letting out another shriek, bringing her head back, glaring at me. "Look at how you've ruined my body!"

"Your body was already ruined from your traitorous actions, Stray!" I cried, my voice stern, but shaky, my body trembling as my adrenaline began to kick in, stepping forward theatrically, my heart thumping against my chest wildly, as I began to speak once more. "You have sullied yourself in your pursuit for power and have refused redemption, and I, Lyonette Griffin-Gremory, shall be your reckoning!" I charged forward, my blade in hand and a spark in my eyes, the Stray Devil screamed, slamming her hand down in a fit of rage, narrowly missing me as I rolled out of the way, my adrenaline pumping at maximum.

_"Fucking hell~! I've never felt so alive~!" _I glared at the abomination's hand as I got to my feet, stumbling, grinning harder than I ever have, as I cried out. "Sacred Gear! Black Thorn!"

The vines from before smashed out of the ground where her hand slammed, my Sacred Gear began to glow brightly, the vines wrapping tightly around her hand, a loud howl of agony could be heard from the Stray as she tried to force her hand out of the ensnaring tendrils of blackness which were ripping into her hand, her screams and howls only amplified as I slashed my sword into her hand, the blade glowing brighter as it cut into her flesh, chopping it clean off, blood spraying everywhere.

"You horrible little slut!" she screeched, throwing her stumpy wrist into the air, her face twisted into a horrid, wide-mouthed expression of pain and agony.

"Enough mouthin' off, bitch! Shut it and die already!" I said, throwing my hand up into the air, the vines impaling the creature's chest, going straight through to the other side, greeting my ears with even more severe screaming and howling. I heard slow clapping behind me, turning my head to look at the source...It was Rias, stepping towards me, with everyone else staring at me, open mouthed. "...W-wanna finished this thing off, Rias?"

"With pleasure~" the busty red-head said, looking up at the Stray's face, smirking very slightly. "...Do you have any last words, Viser?"

"G-go to hell..." Viser said croakily, watching as Rias seemed to summon a magic circle in front of herself, the iconography of it spinning and glowing, seemingly preparing something.

"Let's get that over with then, shall we?" Rias stated smugly, discharging a large amount of destructive energy from the circle, a loud screech coming from Viser as she seemed to disperse into the energy, disappearing from sight. "...Alright, we're done here." the red-head stated, looking at everyone else, and then me. "Let's go home.~"

"Lyo!" I heard Issei yell, throwing himself at me and hugging me tightly, tears in his eyes. "God-damn it! I thought we lost you for a moment, but that was awesome!" I felt someone pat me on the back, as I turned to see Kiba's smiling face.

"You did great there, Lyonette!" he complimented, the shine in his eyes still as present as ever, with that smug expression of his.

"Yeah, that was pretty cool, actually." Koneko stated, her expression still blank and bored looking, despite everything that just happened. I looked over at Akeno, who simply giggled and nodded encouragingly. I looked down at my Sacred Gear, smiling slightly and sheathing my sword.

_"I guess...I unlocked my Sacred Gear properly..."_ I thought, snapping out of my thoughts suddenly as I looked at Rias, who simply patted me on the head.

"That was quite the display, Lyonette." she said with an appreciative smile, putting her hand on her hip. "I don't think I've ever seen a Stray that powerful...Much less a newly reborn Pawn go toe-to-toe with one!"

"T-thanks, Rias..." I said, realising exactly what was just said, tilting my head. "...W-wait, Pawn?" Rias simply giggled, looking at Issei and I.

"Did I forget to tell you both?" she teased, her voice coated with smugness. "Your chess pieces that were assigned to you both. You're both Pawns."

In unison, my jaw and Issei's jaw dropped, both of us staring at Rias.

"JUST PAWNS?!"

* * *

_**Ohhh boy, that was quite the chapter to write...sorry about the time it took, I was rather preoccupied with other matters, not to mention suffering from writer's block, so as a result, this took a while to do...But, I'm back, and hopefully, in a good state to be writing stories.~**_

_**Of course, I need to address the troll/child in the room.**_

_**Chucklenuts - "**__**are you retarted? i am VERY serious stop making fun of me or i wlil SUE you and get your STORY taken down  
i will ruin your life admiral headPAT  
yeah i spelled your name right this time you fucking cunt"**_

_***retarded**_

_**and to answer your question, yes, I am retarded.**_


	8. What now?

_Chapter 8 - What now?  
_

[Timeskip: Back home]

As soon as I got home, I stalked into the living room, going for the stairs silently. Tonight had been very eventful, and as a result, draining as _fuck_, I thought a normal day at school was tiring, but this day had taken the cake, I felt both proud of myself and severely regretful in equal measure...

"Lyonette, are you alright?" my walk to the stairs was interrupted, as I looked to my mother, the source of the voice, sighing a little.

"Y-yeah...Just...tired." I said, stretching a little as I spoke. "School work fried my brain, and I...Had a lot of information given to me at once, both by my teachers, and by the ORC..."

_"I mean, I'm not wrong, am I?"_

"I-I see..." my mother said, walking closer to my and putting her hand on my forehead, feeling my temperature with a concerned look on her face. "...You feel very sweaty and clammy..."

"Yeah...now that I think about it, I don't feel too well..." I said, trying to hide the fact that I was still hot and sweaty from when I was fighting that Stray. "...I'll go to bed and stuff and probably be better tomorrow." my mother put her hand on her hip, sighing a little.

"I believe that you should take a day off school tomorrow..." she said, taking my hand in hers and stroking the back of it comfortingly. "You have a temperature, not to mention the fact that you're very pale right now..."

"M-mom, I'm always pale..." I protested, blinking and sighing a little. "I-I'm just a little under the weather right now...at least see how I am tomorrow." it was at this point, that my mom's look of concern turned to suspicion.

"...You're being awfully insistent on going to school tomorrow..." she folded her arms, eying me sceptically. "You're not normally like this, Lyonette."

"T-trust me, mom, I'm fine." I continued to protest, putting my hand on the stairs railing, taking a step onto the stairs. "Please don't worry...I don't want you to worry." my mother simply stood their, her arms folded and a look of angry conjecture on her face, before she sighed and walked up to me, giving me a soft hug.

"...Rest well, sweetheart...Hopefully you're better tomorrow." with those words, she gave me a kiss on the forehead, releasing me from the hug. "Love you."

"L-love you too, mom..." I said, smiling a little as I began to walk upstairs, entering my room and closing the door behind me, throwing off my jacket and scarf, sitting on my bed, stretching.

_**"So...that was quite the performace you had today~"**_ Equinox expressed, her voice sounding teasing, yet caring.

_"I guess so..."_ I responded in my thoughts, looking at the floor, noticing a piece of metal string poking out from under my bed. I tilted my head, blinking slowly as I leaned down to look, seeing my acoustic guitar, still laying my bed, collecting dust. _"Do you think I could get away with playing my guitar for a little bit before I go to bed?"_

**_"I mean, you already told your mother you're getting some sleep,__ no?"_** she responded, a questioning tone in her voice. _**"I mean, of course, you can try, but I can't promise that your mother will take very kindly to you doing so, should she find out."**_

_"Eh...Mom'll probably be making food for her and Tylia, so she won't hear, probably."_ I quietly took my guitar from the under the bed, putting it on my lap and putting it into position, brushing the dust off it and clearing my throat, coughing a bit from all the dust it had collected over the four years of it's neglect. I sighed, beginning to slowly strum the thing, seeing if it was still in tune, which it surprisingly was. "Heh...Copper must have bought this thing somewhere good if it's still tuned after so long.~" I began to try and play the only song which I remembered how to play, which, funnily enough, I couldn't remember the name of, and as I rustily played it, I began to hear something rustling from the other side of the room, as if something was stirring and moving.

I blinked, directing my attention to the other side of the room, where my dresser and a few posters were, with my dresser seemingly shaking a little. I felt myself go pale as I quietly put down my guitar, getting to my feet and tip-toing over to the dresser.

_"Do I have rats in here or something?" _crouching down and opening my bottom drawer, which was simply full of trousers and skirts, with the revalation that that drawer was safe, I sighed a little, closing it and opening the next, which simply contained shirts, I then closed it and opened the next, where all my scarves and gloves were, finding that it was also empty of anything it shouldn't have, closing the drawer, I opened the small drawer at the top, the one to my left, which just contained all my bras. _"So...that leaves the last drawer..."_ I quietly looked towards the drawer to my right, slowly putting my hand on the handle and pulling it open...finding it to simply be all of my panties, simply in their drawer in their normal messy fashion. I sighed in relief, beginning to close the drawer, before I saw something move inside of it.

I squeaked, falling onto my ass as I looked at the small creature which poked it's head out of the drawer, a small, black dragon-like creature, there was no definition between it's 'teeth' and head, aside from a glowing red outline around them, which even then, made its teeth look like another part of its head, the same glow surrounded it as it stared at me, blinking its small yellow-red eyes at me, a pair of my underwear hanging off of it's snout.

"Uh...Hey, little buddy..." I said, trying to sound as genuine and fearless as possible as the small dragon used one of its little claws to take the panties off its snout, squirming out of the drawer and pouncing onto my lap, simply looking up at me curiously. "Uh...How did you find your way in here?" the dragon huffed a little, nestling down in my lap, it's tiny wings flapping a little. "...Okay then..." I sighed, picking the creature up and putting it in the closet, much to the creature's apparent confusion. "...J-just stay in there while I sleep, I'll...figure you out tomorrow..." I yawned, closing the door and going over to my bed, taking my guitar off and shoving it underneath.

_"This whole fucking day has been weird as fuck..." _I slowly laid down on my bed, tossing my socks and skirt off, moving the covers over me, taking my glasses off. _"Hopefully tomorrow is less eventful..."_

_[Timeskip: The Next Day]_

Sleeping peacefully, I laid on my side, cuddled up in my duvet, comfortable as I could be...truly, mornings are the comfiest times, especially when you've got school in so little time, normally, I'm awoken to the sound of my alarm, or the sound of my sister, barking at me to get my ass out of bed, but today was different, as I was awoken with a poke to my cheek and a teasing, yet timid giggle.

"Lyonette~ Please wake up~" a soft voice, assertive, yet kindly, with a rather fancy British accent met my sleepy ears as I slowly stirred, rubbing my eyes and looking up, blinking as I fumbled for my glasses, only to find them being put on my face, my eyes met with an unfamilar face. "Are you awake now? It seems really silly to sleep in so late, you know." the face was that of a young woman, soft features clashing slightly with her oddly coloured eyes, with one being red, the other a dark blue, black hair flowed down from her hair, feeding into small pigtails, which touched the strange, noble dress she wore, a pair of black dragon wings flapping slightly on her back.

"...who the fuck are you?" I said, shuffling back and looking at her, blinking rapidly and tilting my head. "How did you get in my room?"

"You found me last night." the woman responded with a giggle, closing her eyes and smiling warmly. "Don't you remember? I was in your underwear drawer, and you put me in your closet, it was rather surreal, to be fair."

Immediately, it clicked, the mere mention of my underwear drawer made me remember what had transpired the previous night, with the small black dragon.

"...W-wait, you were the little dragon thing?" I asked, tilting my head, self-conciously lifting my duvet over my chest.

"Yes. I am." she responded, nodding and patting my head, giggling softly. "...My name is Ragna, and I'm going to be staying with you for a while~"

"Hold up, why are you staying with me? I barely know you." I protested, frowning slightly, folding my arms crossly.

"I know you don't...But, I'm afraid that's how things are meant to be." she stated in a rather blunt fashion, looking at my right arm, a calm look upon her face. "You own the Destruction Gear, therefore, you own me."

"Destruction Gear?" I asked, looking at my arm, looking over it for a moment, before looking back at her. "...Are you on about my Sacred Gear?"

"Yes. I am." she stated, still with the same bluntness and calmness as she did before, a smile on her face. "For as long as I can remember, I've been tied to it...Well, technically, you're my first master, as far I know, but still."

"...I-I don't know how to feel about this..." I stated, looking at my arm again, before I began hearing someone coming up the stairs, my head jolting up as I looked at Ragna. "S-someone's coming! If you wanna stay, I suggest you hide!" Ragna gave a smile and a nod, turning back into a small dragon and slipping under the bed, just as the door opened and Tylia poked her face inside my room, a neutral, yet meek look on her face.

"Sister...may I come in for a moment?" she asked, her faux British accent seeming somewhat crude in comparison to Ragna's. "I wish to talk to you...privately."

I sat there, trying my best not to look suspicious, keeping my duvet over myself. "Uh...sure." Tylia slowly opened the door all the way, walking inside the room, closing it quietly behind her, looking at me, still donning her blue sword and shield pajamas.

"I just wanted to..." she paused, putting her hand on her chest timidly, looking at my face with equal meekness. "...Ask you something?" It was at this point, I realised something, looking over my sister, I realised that it had been more than a couple years since I'd seen her in her night clothes, or, in anything other than her uniform or casual clothes, really, the reason I came to such a realisation was the fact that...

"Uh...sure, but...Tyls?" I felt a bit of red creep upon my face, as I looked at Tylia. "...When did you...grow so much?" Tylia, since the last time I had seen her out of her normal attire, seemed to have grown a fair bit. Normally, her clothing does a great job of hiding her body underneath, but looking at her like this... "Like, seriously, your tits are wayyy bigger than usual." Tylia froze up, her face going beet red as she stepped back a little, a look of shock on her face.

"L-Lyonette!" she stammered out, seemingly searching her mind for words to say. "St-stop that! I don't want to hear about it!" she stepped a little closer, keeping her hand on her chest. "I-I just wanted to ask if you could bring me to the Occult Research Club after school today!" I blinked slowly, unsure of what the fuck just happened there.

"I mean...Rias should be cool with it, so..." I nodded, smiling a little, still a little confused. "Sure? I can see what I can do?" Tylia, with a red face, slowly nodded, sighing.

"...T-thank you..." she said, sitting next to me on my bed, before quietly hugging me. "I really appreciate you doing this for me, sister." I felt a small smile creep onto my face as I patted her back, giggling softly.

"No problem, sis~" I said, sweating a little, unsure of how to handle this trainwreck of a conversation. _"Hopefully Rias doesn't get on my case for bringing someone to the club without asking properly..." _I quietly nodded, patting her head. "Anyway, you should probably go back to your room...Mom'll be pissed if she finds out you're up this early."

"Mother is out." she replied, sitting on my bed, looking at me. "She won't be back until noon."

"...Wait, what time even _is_ it?" I asked, looking at my alarm clock, which read 6:47...less than two hours until school. "...Why's she out so early?" I asked, looking back at Tylia, tilting my head.

"She was apparently called out to work early today...An exceptionally dire circumstance, according to her boss." she crossed her legs as she spoke, clearing her throat as she finished speaking. I blinked, mulling over this for a second.

_"...That's a weird way of wording it...I thought mom only worked an office job."_ I sighed quietly, laying back down, keeping my duvet over my chest. "...C-can I at least get dressed, sis?" Tylia's face immediately went red as she stood up, blinking.

"O-oh...right..." she stated, awkwardly. "...j-just shout me back in when you're done...I will go and do the same."

"Will do, sis!" I yelled out, blinking and sighing, groggily getting out of bed, frowning. "...So fucking early, sheesh..." I quietly began began getting my uniform on, stretching as I put my socks on, sighing as I put the rest of it on, flicking my little shoulder cape as I did so. "Alright, sis, you can come back in now!" after a moment, Tylia entered the room again, wearing her own uniform, strangely though, her chest seemed to have shrunk.

"...So...After school, we're going to your club, correct?" she asked, sitting on my bed, looking up at me, tilting her head.

"Um...yes." I responded, sitting next to her, crossing my legs. "If you're cool with that, and if the pres is cool with it." Tylia nodded, smiling slightly.

"...Do you not have her number?" she asked, tilting her head. I shook my head slowly, giggling nervously.

"As if I'd have Rias' number..." I said, leaning back a little, my back bumping the wall behind me. "That's...kinda a dumb idea." Tylia blinked and looked down, sighing.

"I'm merely trying to come up with ideas, sister...No need to get on my case for it." she stated, a slight coldness in her voice as she looked back at me. I sighed and looked at her, shaking my head.

"I guess we'll have to find out when I bring you there..." I stated, folding my arms quietly as I looked about my room, looking at the floor. "...Speaking of school, we should probably start to get going soon..."

"I agree." Tylia responded, standing up and looking at me. "Let us get going." as I was about to nod, I remembered about Ragna, who was currently still under my bed.

"Uh...You can start heading out, I just need to..." I sat up, looking down at the floor, where Ragna was peaking her snout from under the bed. "...Tend to some stuff."

"You're not going to pleasure yourself, are you?" she stated blankly, without a hint of irony in her voice. I spluttered and cleared my throat, a blush making its way onto my face.

"N-no! Why would I do that?!" I protested, folding my arms. Tylia put her hand on her hip, eying me suspicously.

"I know what you are like, Lyonette." she stated, smirking a very slight bit as she walked out of the room, leaving me flustered and blinking.

"That was...quite the conversation." Ragna said, looking up at me and hopping onto my leg, crawling up it like some kind of scaley cat, winding up on my lap.

"Yeah.." I said, picking her up and standing, looking down at her. "...Listen, if you're going to be staying with me...I'd recommend keeping quiet and keeping yourself hidden." I stated, slowly walking over to the door and picking my bag up off the door. "Humans aren't particularly fond of Devils and their companions, from what I hear, so...hop in here." I said, opening my handbag with one hand and putting the small black dragon near it, Ragna simply hopped in, poking her head out of the top for a moment, before moving further into it. "Sorry if it's a little cramped in there..."

"'Tis fine, master." Ragna stated, her voice muffled by the bag as she shuffled around inside it, going still. I sighed, quietly opening my door and making my way downstairs, where Tylia was waiting next to the door.

"Are you done with what you were wanting to do, sister?" she asked, quietly putting a hand on her hip, watching as I nodded.

"Yep, all taken care of!" I said with a smile, walking over to her and opening the door. "Let's get a move on." Tylia simply walked through the door, I followed her, watching her movements quietly. After a little bit of walking, I found myself looking back at Tylia's chest, remembering how it was earlier, and immediately began questioning it all again. "...So...uh, sis. Your tits are back to normal size." I stated, teasingly. "Were you wearing a padded bra or something when you were in your PJs or something?" Tylia's face went red as she put her hands over her chest, pouting a slight bit.

"Lyonette, I'd like it if you _didn't_ talk about such things." she said, dodging the question, looking away from me.

"I just wanna know." I giggled slightly, patting her head. "One girl to another, y'know?" Tylia's face remained as it was, blushing and flustered, before she muttered something.

"...binder..." was all I could hear from her, with the rest being unintelligable.

"What was that?" I asked, leaning my head in a little closer to listen more carefully.

"...mother wished for me to wear a binder." she stated, frowning a slight bit as she spoke, clearly embarrassed by the subject. "so I didn't draw the eye of any men..." listening to the explaination, I began to understand why her clothes hid her body so well.

"...Wait, so this is because...mom told you to wear a binder all the time?" I asked, receiving a nod in response. "...Right, gotcha." I said, patting her head softly with a giggle. "That's all I wanted to know~" Tylia was dead silent for the next few minutes, her blush slowly subsiding as silence befell us both, persisting until we reached the school gates, which was when...

"Excuse me, out of my way." I felt a hand push me to the side, as someone barged past me, their back and head covered by a cloak and hood. I looked at the girl, recognising them instantly.

"Evie? What the hell was that for?" I asked, a slight growl in my voice as I gritted my teeth, only to be met with silence from the brunette as she continued her walk to the gates. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" I said, beginning to walk a little faster to catch up with the girl, feeling a little bit aggravated as I put my hand on her shoulder, to have it shrugged off, and a glare be dealt to me by the hooded girl.

"Get your hands off me." she growled, a look of spite in her eyes, along with a coldness in her voice I'd never heard from anyone, not even Tylia.

"What the hell did I do to you?!" I barked, returning the glare as best as I could, to which Evie responded with a simple turn and walk, making her way away from me.

"What was that about?" I heard Tylia ask, tilting her head as she stood where she was, a look of confusion on my face.

"No clue..." I growled, folding my arms angrily, waiting for her to catch up properly. With the thought fresh on my mind, we stood next to the gates, waiting for the time to come when we could enter the school, watching the early rising students arrive.

Eventually, the gates were opened, and we stepped inside the courtyard, and while Tylia was probably feeling fine...I couldn't help but feel anxious, with Ragna in my bag, and a possible breach of the whole 'normal humans shouldn't know about devils' thing, I had a fair few things to worry about.

_"Hopefully everything goes well..."_ I began to try and think of all the ways this could go right, and all the ways this could go wrong...however, before I could think more, I heard an all too familiar voice shriek my name.

"LYONETTE!" I heard Issei yell, nearly tripping up as he dashed towards me, screeching to a halt in front of me, taking a breather, before looking up at me. "Where the hell were you this morning?!"

"I was walking to school..." I began, looking at him, then at Tylia, then back at him. "With Tylia."

"Why didn't you wait for me?!" he yelled, a look of petty anger on his face as he glared at me.

"Some stuff came up...sooo." I said, whistling innocently. "There you have it." Issei grumbled, folding his arms and looking at us both.

"Fiine...okay." he said, sighing, looking around. I decided to take this oppurtunity to tell him of my plan for tonight.

"Hey...Issei. When we go to the ORC, is it okay if Tyls tags along?" I asked, putting a hand on my hip. He blinked, looking at me.

"I mean...Have you asked Rias? Is she okay with it?"

"...nooo..."

An awkward silence fell over us all, with the class bell being the thing to break it.

_"Talk about getting saved by the bell..."_ I thought to myself, looking at them both. "A-anyway, when schools out, let's all meet in the lobby of the school building, then we can walk to the old school building together...That sound okay?" I was met with words of agreement from the two of them and we all went to our respective classes.

_[Timeskip: After school]_

After what felt like an eternity of boring classes, droning teacher's voices and other fun school activities, I walked into the lobby of the school building with Issei, seeing Tylia waiting in there, tapping her foot against the floor, we walked up to her, and the following events transpired.

"Ready to go?" I asked, looking at the two of them with a small smile on my face.

"As ready as I'll ever be..." Tylia responded, folding her arms bashfully.

"You bet I'm ready!" Issei cheered, smiling. "School was boring as hell today!"

"Yes, it...really fucking was." I said, groaning a little, thinking. "...anyway, let's get going." We began to move along, out of the doors and in the direction of the old school building. Tylia fidgeted as she walked, an anxious look on her face, stealing glances at Issei and I.

"So...This Rias person...Rias Gremory, if I'm correct?" she asked, a hint of worry in her voice as she looked at me, watching me nod slowly. "...Is she nice? I hear about her a lot around school, so..."

"Oh, trust me, she is great~" Issei said, the all too familar perverted look on his face as he spoke. "She's got huge-"

"I think she meant 'is she nice', as in with people, Issei." I corrected him, frowning a slight bit, before looking at my sister. "Yeah, she's alright...A little uptight though, but she means well."

"...Will she take ire to me? S-since my Sacred Gear is holy?" she asked, pursing her lips in a concerned fashion. I opened my mouth to speak, blinking and stopping myself.

"...I didn't even think of that." I said, putting my hand on my head. "...Hopefully she doesn't...As long as you don't try to murder anyone, you should be fine."

"I-I will try to refrain from doing anything of the sort." she said, nodding slowly, before looking at her bag. "Besides...I have a fair few questions I wish to ask them, since...this is an Occult Research Club, no?"

"...Yeah?" I tilted my head, looking at Tylia's bag, notcing that it was a bit more stretched out than usual, as if she had something long stashed in it. "...What are you wanting to ask about?"

"I-it's nothing for you to worry about for now, sister." she said, looking forward and putting a hand on her bag. I narrowed my eyes at Tylia, putting a hand on my hip.

"...Well, you haven't got long to wait, since we're literally right outside the building." I pointed out, feeling my bag stir a little as we walked inside the building, going up the stairs and finding ourselves in the OCR's room. Koneko was sat on the couch, her trademark look of indifference on her face as she turned to look at us, a slight bit of suspicion crossing her face, Kiba was looking out of the window, before stealing a glance over at us, tilting his head slightly to the left.

"Lyonette? Issei? Who's this person you've brought with you?" he asked, a look of confusion and slight worry on his face. I smiled, patting my sister's head, hearing her squeak in response.

"This is my sis, Tylia." I responded, pulling Tylia to be beside Issei and I, watching her as she looked around with slight uncomfort. "She wanted to check the place out...I think I've mentioned her before."

"Didn't Rias say that getting outsiders involved is a bad idea?" he asked, blinking a slight bit, slowly beginning to walk over.

"I-I promise that I won't be too much of a hassle." Tylia squeaked, trying to bow politely. "This was my idea. Please don't get angry at Lyonette."

"I mean...I'm not. But Rias might be." Kiba said, folding his arms and looking between us. "I'm cool with having more members, but I'm not sure if Rias feels the same about it."

"If I feel the same about what?" with the clacking of shoes against the floor, Rias entered the room, looking around at us all as she spoke, her gaze eventually landing on Tylia and I. "...Lyonette, what did I tell you about bringing people to the club?"

"A-as I said to the boy, miss Gremory." Tylia began to speak, moving forward slightly. "This was my idea...Don't get angry at my sister." Rias sighed, rubbing her temples and looking at us all.

"You better have a good reason for bringing her, Lyonette." she stated, putting her hand on her hip, looking a little pissed off.

"I-I wished to ask something...Since I figured that someone here would know about it." Tylia said, unzipping her bag, a bit of sweat dripping down her face, she then proceeded to take a sword out of her bag, the same sword which was normally mounted on the wall in her room, sheathed, held in her hands horizontally. The sword was ornate, the scabbard being made of a fine blue leather, with gold markings and trims on it, with the hilt being a similar colour. Rias tilted her head, sighing and taking the sword, looking over it. "...Mother says that it's special. A family heirloom." Rias looked over the sword, a look of confusion and curiosity on her face.

"Isn't that thing just a decoration?" I asked, looking at Tylia with a questioning tone in my voice, putting my hand on my hip. "You've always got it hung on your wall, so..I figured that's all it was." Rias blinked slightly, thinking before looking at me.

"No." she stated, passing Tylia the sword back, eying her cautiously. "It's not decorative...From what I can tell, it looks to have some kind of magic on it..." she thought for a moment, putting a hand on her chin. "Though, what it does, I can't quite put my finger on it..." Tylia tilted her head, looking down at the sword, seemingly considering this information, looking up at Rias.

"Can you...at least figure out what type of magic it is?" Akeno asked, seeming appearing out of nowhere, a curious look on her face.

"Not...really?" Rias said, looking over at Akeno, folding her arms, her gaze flicking between her and Tylia. "It's a strange mixture of holy energy and our own energy..." she looked at Tylia, putting a hand on her hip. "Can I ask where you got this?" Tylia backed up a little, putting her sword back in her bag.

"M-my mother gave it to me a while ago." she answered, looking at her bag, then back at Rias, a look of slight confusion on her face as she spoke. "I was told that it was special, to some degree, though, she never told me...how it was special." Rias seemed to go a tad pale, looking at me and Tylia with a slight air of panic around her.

"I see." she said, clearing her throat, seemingly trying to shrug something off. "W-well...Either way...Lyonette, can I ask why you brought her?" I blinked, tilting my head and looking at Rias, adjusting my glasses nervously, taking note of the feeling in the air.

"S-she wanted to visit and stuff...she wanted to see if Devils were as bad as mom always told her they were, so I brought her with me." I responded, watching as the red-head's expression seemed to turn more concerned.

"...Well...I guess our cover's blown." she stated, sighing softly, putting her hand to her face, her lips twisting into a frown, she then fixed her gaze on Tylia and spoke in a stern voice. "You can stay while we do our business, as long as you stay with your sister." she took her hand off her face, a slightly stressed look in her eyes. "Also, please do not tell anyone about what you see here today. This is your first and only warning to willing comply with those conditions." Tylia blinked, stepping back a slight bit, her eyes beaming with excitement, while still slightly dim with fear.

"Y-you have my word, Lady Gremory!" she said, putting a hand on her chest, seemingly trying to speak solumnly. Giggling slightly, I tapped Tylia's head, patting her softly.

"No need to be so formal, sis~" I reassured her, a slight bit of sweat running down my brow. "Rias might look a little intimidating, but you don't have to treat her like nobility."

"...I'm sorry. Force of habit, I suppose." Tylia said, taking her hand off her chest, looking at me, then back at Rias. Issei cleared his throat, sticking his hand up.

"Sorry for interrupting and all that stuff, but are we actually goin' to be doing any fancy Devil stuff, or is all that cancelled because Lyo's sis is here?" he asked, looking a tad impatient and bored. Rias sighed, folding her arms and looking at us all, the stern, commanding look in her eyes looking somehow incredibly familiar already.

"Alright...Your duties today will be a slight bit more mundane than yesterday." she spoke, scanning over us all patiently, as if making sure we all understood. "Issei, you'll be doing summon requests for me this time, since I've got a fair few of them that need to be done."

"What if they want some really weird and funky Devil stuff done?" he asked, looking at Rias curiously. "Or am I meant to bluff my way out?"

"Just do what you can. Normally, they don't ask for much." she responded, putting a hand on her hip. "Whatever it is, I'm sure you can handle it." Issei gave a sigh, muttering something about 'being a step closer to getting his harem', as Rias turned to me and begun speaking. "As for you, Lyonette, you are being put on flyer duty today, considering what you did last night, I don't want you overworking yourself." just as I was about to respond, the sound of a throat being cleared was heard from the couch.

"Actually, I'm double booked." I heard the quiet, deadpan voice of Koneko speak, her indifferent eyes gazing at me as she lazed on the couch. "So, if she could take one of my summons, that'd be neat."

"...Well, I suppose doing a summon for her shouldn't be too much of a hassle." Rias stated after a moment of thought, looking back at me. "So, yes, you and your sister will be filling in for Koneko tonight.

"It's just some guy who keeps trying to summon me." Koneko stated, looking over us as she spoke. "It shouldn't be too much of a pain in the ass."

"Oh, uh...Sure?" I looked at Tylia, studying her expression, trying to figure out how she felt about the scenario, she had a slight look of excitement in her eyes, as well as a slightly guilty look. "Tyls, you okay with doing a summon with me?"

"I...Don't know how to feel about this." Tylia said, scratching the back of her head nervously. "But, I'll try not to get in the way." I looked over at Rias, giving her a nod, signalling that I was ready.

"...Alright." Rias said, smiling a slight bit, looking over at Akeno, nodding to her. Tylia seemed to watch curiously as Akeno began setting up the transportation circle, seemingly looking a little pale as she watched her.

"You okay, Tylia?" I asked her, tilting my head and blinking, putting a hand on my hip. "You look a bit spooked?" Tylia blinked, nodding a little.

"Sorry...I'm not quite used to this stuff yet, so..." she stated in a slightly shakey fashion, before forcing a smile. Issei sighed, walking out the door, grumbling about having to take the bicycle again. Akeno looked up at us both, smiling brightly.

"The circle's ready~!" she exclaimed in her chipper, slightly demented voice, she moved out of the way of the circle, gesturing to it with a grin on her face. I giggled slightly, patting Tylia's back reassuringly.

"Come on sis, let's get going~" I said, bringing her over to the circle, watching as she looked at me, looking a tiny bit concerned as we stepped into it. "...You ready, sis?" I asked, smiling as I waited for a response.

"A-as ready as I'll ever be..." Tylia said, blinking and nodding, a slight frown on her face. The circle began to glow to life, the redness was almost blinding as I heard Tylia cry out a little, seemingly from the feeling of being transported from one place to the other.

_"This is going to take some getting used to for her...I can tell."_

_[Timeskip: A few hours later]_

A rush of cold air hit my face as we stepped out from the small apartment building we just left, a relieved sigh escaping me, with Tylia closing the door behind us.

"I never thought I could find a room with more pent up sexual tension radiating from it than Motohama's room..." I began, looking at Tylia as she walked down the outside stairs. "Yet here I am, corrected."

"I've never seen most of the manga and anime things he had in there..." Tylia said, a slight bit curiousity in her voice as she seemed to think deeply for a moment. "...Sister, did you recognise anything he had in that room?"

"Not all of it, but some of it." I stated, raising an eyebrow, wondering what she was trying to imply with what she was saying. "...Why?"

"Because...I know that you and your friends are rather..." she seemed to put a finger to her chin, thinking for a moment. "...Perverted."

"Hey! The other three are, but not me! I'm not like that!" I said, blushing and smirking a tiny bit, patting her on the head. "Well, not as bad, anyway." Tylia pouted a little, going quiet as she continued to walk along, watching the quiet street with a slight frown on her face. The quiet and calm was soon interrupted, however, walking down the street, I was suddenly pushed out of the way by somebody. I blinked, snapping out of my thoughts and looking at the person who just pushed me.

"Hey! What's your deal?!" I growled, looking at the person who just pushed past me, finding them to be a girl, dressing a Kuoh uniform, who was making a mad dash down the street, giggling in like a madwoman. "Hey! Get your ass back here!" I yelled out, dashing after the girl, a feeling of rage overtaking reason.

"Sister! Stop chasing them!" Tylia protested, briskly running after me, a look of annoyance on her face as she caught up to me. Suddenly, a pair of bat-like wings sprung from the girl's back, her speed picking up as I saw Tylia's face change from annoyance, to anger. The girl came to a dead stop at a pair of parked motorcycles, allowing us to catch up to her with a grin on her face, a mischevious spark in her scarlet red eyes as she looked at us.

"Can I help you~?" she teasingly stated, with the tone of voice of a toddler who just got away with getting their sibling in trouble, her jet black hair swishing a little in the slight breeze.

"Uh, yeah actually!" I growled, leaning a little closer to the girl, gritting my teeth a slight bit. "I'd like to know why the fuck you shoved me out of the way!"

"Hmm...You know, as much as I'd like to give an answer~" she began, giggling before leaning a little closer to me. "I'd rather let you figure that out a better way~"

"Are you seriously doing this sh-" my words were cut off as the girl pushed her face into mine, her lips pressing against my own, I felt my eyes widen, as I was filled with two emotions. The first was confusion, because of the nature of the situation, the second was, of course, anger. _"Oh, this bitch is fucking dead!" _my thoughts of murder were cut off by the sound of a roaring engine, smoke beginning to cloud my vision a little, with a giggle being heard from the girl.

"Catch me if you can~" the girl smugly stated, as the roar of the motorcycle's engine began to get quieter and more distant, and before I knew it, the girl was driving off on one of the motorcycles, leaving us in the dust. I growled in frustration, stamping my foot on the ground, looking at Tylia, finding her to have a large blush on her face, her mouth hanging open.

"What are you gawking at?! Are we chasing her or what?!"

"W-what?!" Tylia seemed to snap out of her thoughts as I threw her onto the other motorcycle, a squeak being heard from her as I glared down at her, hopping on the back.

"Drive!" I barked, my rage overtaking any decency I had as I drew my sword from its scabbard.

"B-but! I don't know how to drive a motorcycle!" Tylia protested, a look of shock and panic on her red face.

"Well! You better fucking learn quickly!" I growled, holding up my arm with my sword in hand, watching as my Sacred Gear manifested over my hand. "Black Thorn!" I looked back down, a black, thorny vine slithering into the ignition, forcing its way inside and twisting, the sound of the vehicle spluttering to life was heard. "Get driving, Tylia!" my sister let out a panicked yelp as we went barreling forward, a deafening sound of snapping chains and screeching tires meeting my ears as we tore down the darkened street.

_**"Don't you think this is...just a little irresponsible, Lyonette?"**_

_"Shut the FUCK!"_

**_"...Do you plan to finish that statement?"_**

Streetlights flew by, streaks of lights, little more than a blur as we sped down the street, eventually catching sight of the Devil girl on the other motorcycle, catching up to her speed as I gave her a death glare, getting a smug look in return.

"Oh~! I see you listened to me~?" she stated, shouting over the roaring of the engines, following it with a comparabley quiet giggle, winking at me. "I honestly didn't think you'd do it, yet here you are, proving me wrong~"

"Save it, dickhead!" I yelled, leaning to the side and attempting to swipe my blade at her, my sword clanking against the metal chassis of the bike, the tip of it bouncing off and beginning to scrap against the floor, red sparks trailing behind us as I pulled it back up. The girl feigned surprise, giggling maniacially.

"How frightening, Lyonette~!" she teased, beginning to pick up speed once more. "Perhaps you might actually do something next time~!"

"Oh no you **_fucking_** don't!" I cried, making another swipe at the girl and missing once again, letting out a cry of frustration as I looked at Tylia, spying her overwhelmed and surprised look, noticing the joyful spark in her eyes. "Tylia! GO, FASTER!" she let out a small squeak, not taking her eyes off the road as she put pedal the to the metal, the bike beginning to gain on the Devil once more, her look turning to joyful determination. I felt the bike buck as we seemed to run over a speed bump, feeling us begin to gain altitude as we ramped off of it, keeping my gaze fixed on the Devil as I prepared my Sacred Gear once more.

"Black Thorn!" I hollered at the top of my lungs, vines tearing out of the ground and trying to snag the wheels of the girl's motorcycle, with her steering clear of them at every chance she had. I felt my blood begin to boil, flames beginning to burn from my heart in seething rage, a crash being heard as we made contact with the ground once more, hitting the ground running and continuing to drive along, the bump only deepening my rage...And then, for a moment, my mind went quiet, my gauntlet's scales glowing a bright, blood red, all thoughts clearing from my mind, aside from one:

_"DESTROY."_

Before I knew it, I'd lept off of the speeding vehicle, howling out an animalistic cry as I hopped from one to the other, snarling as I made contact, my gauntlet's claws digging into the metal as I struggled, managing to pull myself onto the motorcycle. I heard a surprised cry from the girl as I grabbed her, trying to tear her off the motorcycle, the shrieking of the tires matched only by the shrieking of the Devil girl as we barreled down the street, the girl shouting and yelping as I dug the Destruction Gear's claw into her, feeling a bump on my face as she punched me full whack, with not even a stinging sensation finding its way through me, suddenly, the jarring scrap of metal brought me out of my rage-trance, looking down to find the motorcycle on its side, spinning out and screeching to a halt, both me and the girl being thrown off it, a horrid pain going through my head as it made contact with the concrete, a grunt being heard from behind me as the girl was thrown onto me, her head slamming into my rear, resulting in a surprised yelp from me. A shaky, silent moment passed as I got back to my senses fully, my heart pumping a mile a minute as the gravity of what just happened hit me like a truck.

"...A-alright...you got me..." the girl said, lifting her face from my backside, spluttering a shaky giggle out. "...g-god~ I haven't felt that alive since I ran from my Master~"

"Your...master?" I responded, shakily, slowly moving myself onto my side, using my hands to prop myself up. "...You're a Stray...?"

"Yes...yes I am." she said, a slight chuckle coming from her as she looked up at me, a smug smile on her somewhat red face. "But...I'm not sure for how much longer.~"

"W-what?" I stated, confused by the response, unsure of what she meant by 'how much longer'. The girl giggled, a hint of madness in her voice as she began to shuffle closer, positioning herself on top of me.

"I can tell that you aren't human...I can tell that you're far from human, Lyonette." she stated, putting her hand on my gauntlet with breathy chuckle, looking me in the face. "You're a Devil, and from what I can see...no, _feel~ _From your Sacred Gear~ You're a powerful one~" she rambled, her tone sounding less smug and more...aroused, like she was trying to seduce me.

"W-where are you going with this?!" I exclaimed, blinking in confusion. "I-if you're wanting to fuck me or something, then no! I'm already taken!" the girl simply shook her head, giggling softly.

"...You know what? I don't know how much longer I can keep myself composed, so~" she began, poking my nose, a smug grin on her face. "Tomorrow. After school, meet me near the gym~"

At this point, I was beyond confused, completely lost on what was going on, and in my confusion, I simply stuttered out.

"...S-sure?"

_"AM I A FUCKING IDIOT OR SOMETHING?! WHY! WHY DID I SAY YES?!"_

The sound of a motorcycle pulling up was heard, footsteps being heard near me.

"Sister...? What are you doing?" I heard Tylia ask, her voice relatively shrill, as if she was trying to hide an emotion of some kind.

"...Fuck."

* * *

**Well. That was quite the ride to write...Didn't really get many reviews this time, so...Just figured I'd say that I'm going to be working on making longer chapters from now on! Not really much else to say, other than...well, wait for the next one! Thank you for reading!**


	9. The Stray Priest

_Chapter 9 -The Stray Priest  
_

It was a weird scene, in hindsight, me, a hormonal teenage girl, with another fairly attractive girl on top of me. To anyone passing by, I'd look like a lesbian or something, and frankly, it'd be funny if not for the fact that the only person there, other than me and the Devil was my own sister, who was staring at me with a face the shade of a tomato.

"...Sister, that doesn't answer my question." she said, slowly approaching the Devil and I, frowning slightly as she looked over us both.

"...Don't worry about it..." I stated, shuffling back and rubbing the back of my head, adjusting my glasses, which by some miracle, hadn't broken in the crossfire of all this. The girl gave a slight giggle, standing up, flashing her smug grin at me once more.

"I'll let you two get off now~ I reckon I've caused you both enough trouble~" she stated, putting a hand on her hip and winking down at me. "Remember Lyonette~ After school, near the gym~" she repeated, beginning to walk off, a slight sway in her hips as she did so. I watched her as she wandered away into the darkness, diverting my gaze back to Tylia, noticing her expression as she gawked at the girl, a giggle escaping me.

"...S-should we have...killed her?" she asked, looking over to me, a slight bit of shakeyness in her voice.

"Nah...?" I responded, getting to my feet and brushing my hands over my uniform, getting the muck and dust off of myself as best as I could. "She had a bit of a...different vibe to her than the Stray we fought yesterday, so...I don't think she's all that bad." I observed as Tylia's jaw dropped, her eyes going wide as she gazed at me.

"You fought a Stray Devil yesterday?!"

"Yeah..." I stated, clearing my throat as I approached her, blinking as I looked at her once more. "That's why I was a little late home last night." Tylia blinked, seemingly thinking over this tid-bit for a moment, watching me as I cleared myself off. "Tell you what though, reporting this to Rias is going to be one hell of a conversation." before opening her mouth to speak, Tylia's train of thought being cut off by the loud ringing of a phone. I turned my head, looking around the area, before looking at my own jacket pocket, stuffing my hand in and taking out my mobile phone, flipping it open and looking at the name of the caller...'Rias G'. "...Since when did I have Rias' number?"

"I thought you said you didn't have Lady Gremory's number..." Tylia said, narrowing her eyes at me and pouting, folding her arms in a stroppy fashion.

"Hold on...Just a sec." I muttered, accepting the call and putting it to my ear. "Yo, Rias, what's up?" I greeted the president with confusion in my voice, hearing her speak on the other end.

_"Hello, Lyonette. Could you quickly get back the school? We've got a bit of a situation..."_ she stated, her voice semi-distorted by the phone's quality.

"...How are we meant to get back to school again?" I asked, sweating a tad as I blinked in confusion. "I don't have the ability to make Magic Circles, do I?"

_"...Just a moment, Akeno is coming to pick you and your sister up."_ she responded with a sigh, seemingly not thinking of the logistics of how we were meant to get back. Before I could respond, a bright flash of red lit up the dark street around us, with Akeno suddenly appearing out of the glow.

"Shall we get going~? You wouldn't want to keep the president waiting, would you~?" Akeno stated in her chipper, slightly unnerving voice, keeping the circle open, seemingly.

_"I'll see you all in a moment." _Rias said, a tone being heard on the other end as she hung up the phone, leaving me with little time to think over what just happened. I nodded to Tylia, putting my phone away and guiding her to the circle, nodding to Akeno as she transported us back to the club room.

_[Perspective of: Tylia Griffin]_

A loud yelp resounded from my lips as the Devil circle transported us from A to B, my eyes and mind sensitive to it's abhorrant power, while also feeling a sense of homelyness from it, in a grim way. It was only a matter of time before I could see once more, a gaze around the room showed me that only Rias, Akeno and Lyonette were present, with Rias having a look of uncertainty upon her resplendant face, gazing at my sister.

"What's going on? Where's Koneko and Kiba? And Issei, for that matter?" Lyonette asked, tilting her head in an inquisitive manner, a look of confoundment in her expression.

"Issei...appears to be in trouble." Rias spoke, folding her arms, her look of worry ever deepening. "I've sent Kiba and Koneko in to check it out, and it looks to be an Exorcist." I immediately felt my heart sink at the word, a frown upon my face.

_"Why am I worried for the livelyhood of a Devil of all things...?"_ I pondered, sighing with a shudder. _"...Then again, considering how these lot have acted...Perhaps I thought wrong as to the nature of these creatures..."_

"So...What am I meant to do?" Lyonette asked, folding her arms with an annoyed exhale.

"I want you and your sister to accompany me and Akeno in there." the busty red-head responded, her look ever stern and imposing, a look which would make a man shudder in fear and possibly deviant arousal.

"...Riiight..." Lyonette groaned, putting her hands on her hips, a small spark in her eyes. "...Let's go then, I suppose."

"...I am not sure if I can match up to a fully trained Exorcist..." I began, putting my hand on my chest, looking at Rias. "But I will try and utilise my magical prowess incase anyone gets injured."

"Magical...prowess?" my sister questioned, glancing me over with a look of confusion. "Since when did you...?"

"I'm afraid we don't have time to chat about this, but we need to get moving." Rias stated, turning her attention to her ebony haired friend. "Akeno, get the circle ready, we're going in."

"On it~!" Akeno heartily cried, beginning to get the magic circle set up once more.

_"...This is surely not going to end well..."_

My thoughts were cut off by the ever surprising crimson flash of the transportation circle, my yelp stifled as I tried to keep a brave face on, finding ourselves in a dim room, with a scarlet pool of blood coating the wooden floor, a blonde haired girl, dressed in the torn up gown of a holy sister, laid upon the ground, whimpering as a man stood over her, wielding a sword of light and a pistol, wearing the robes of a Exorcist, a maddened look of twisted enjoyment on his face, with Kiba and Koneko standing guard over Issei's shivering body.

"Well~! Look who finally decided to join the party~!" the man cackled, his voice searing with insanity and fanatacism. "Big red and her little motley crew rear their pathetic little heads~!"

_"This man...Is he truly an agent of God? Such...insanity could only befall someone of nil faith." _I thought to myself, frowning as I reached into my sachel, quietly taking out my blade, mounting it onto my belt, keeping a stern look trained on the priest.

"...What did we we walk in on? The Catholic Church's annual meeting?" Lyonette snarked, looking at the whimpering sister on the floor, blinking as she tilted her head at you. "...Huh? Wait, aren't you that nun that me and my friend saw the other day?" the sister did not respond, and instead burst out crying, seemingly in fear of the situation we were in.

"Shut up, you bitch!" the priest screamed, slamming his foot into the girl's chest, grinning as he heard her shriek in pain. I gritted my teeth, stepping foreward slightly, agitated that anyone, never-the-less a priest, would act in such a manner.

"Stop that!" I growled, feeling the eyes of everyone in the room turn to me as I spoke. "W-who do you think you are?! Treating someone with such distain!" the man stared at me for a moment, before a horribley sadistic grin crept its way onto his face.

"And who do you think you are? Trying to give me shit as if you're better than me~" he spoke, his words laced with lunacy and madness. "When you're the one hanging around with Devil scum!" he cackled maniacally, delivering another kick to the sister's chest. "And lucky for me~ I've got an all-you-can-purge buffet of the fucking things!"

"How disturbed must you be?!" I stated, raising my voice ever so slightly, so I could be heard over the man's laughter. "For Devils to be kinder than you, you're hardly in a spot to purge anything, lest it be yourself!"

"Aww~ What's the matter~? Is the little girl getting upset that I'm about to slaughter all of her horrid little pals?" the man stated, his abnormally long tongue sticking out of his mouth. "Don't worry kid! You're going to Hell with them!" the man charged forward, slashing his sword of light in my direction, a crazed giggle escaping him as he swung his blade at me, I felt my body panic, unsheathing my sword and putting it up to his, blocking his strike from touching me, I shivered, looking back at the rest of the group, blinking a little, all of them looking at me with a unified look of surprise.

"Tylia! What do you think you're doing!?" Lyonette yelled, moving forward slightly, a look of concern on her face. "You can't take that guy alone! Stop it with your knight bullshit!"

"I'm buying you all time!" I grunted, kicking the man back, further from me. "Get out of here while you still have the chance!"

"Oh, they're not going to have much of a chance~" the man stated, his excitment clear in his voice. "Any moment now, my Fallen Angel friends are going to be here, and they're going to waste all of you pathetic little Devils!"

"...She's right..." Rias stated, looking at the rest of the group and clearing her throat. "...We need to get Issei out of here before those Fallen Angels get here...Koneko! You grab Issei, Akeno, get the circle ready!"

"Awww~ Leaving already~?!" the man rhetoriacally asked, his grin widening as a distorted portal of unholy energy opened up from the ceiling. "But I wanted you all to meet my friends~!" but, alas, his words fell on empty ears as a red flash reflected from behind me, the group disappearing into the circle. I stepped back, putting my sword arm out, putting my free arm under my sword arm to keep it steady, despite my shakeyness.

"Alright then! Who, in God's holy name, are you?!" I spat, glaring at the 'priest', rage building up inside of me as I studied his manic expression. "What kind of agent of God co-operates with Fallen Angels?!"

"Oh, right~! You don't know who I am~!" he said, giggling like a child about to get a new toy. "The name's Freed Selzon~!" I blinked my eyes, stepping back a slight bit, trying to stay composed, even at such a name.

"...Fr-Freed Selzon...?" I stuttered, my composure being to demolish at an alarming pace as it dawned on me what a sitatuation I had gotten myself into. "...The Stray Priest...?"

"In the flesh, you insufferable whore~!" he proclaimed, his grin widening as he stepped forward. I felt my heart begin to sink, beginning to shake and shiver, the oppressive air around me was near suffocating, tendrils of dread running down my spine.

_"...How am I meant to defeat the Stray Priest himself...?" _I thought to myself, shaking in my boots, stepping back. _"...This truly has turned into a diffifcult situation..."_

"Enough chatting~! Let's get the part where I shut that whore mouth of yours for good~!" Freed cackled, charging at me and swinging his sword in a downward slash, I put my own blade up, however, I was too late, as the blade slashed over the front of me, tearing my uniform in two...Revealing my body, now on full display. I gasped, looking down at myself, squealing in fright and embarassment, rushing to cover myself. Freed simply chuckled pervertedly, ramming me into the wall and grinning. "Since I can't get the other bitch co-operative, you'll do just fine~!"

"N-no! Get off me, you sick bastard!" I shrieked, kicking my leg up and slamming my foot into his crotch, hearing him gasp and let out a yelp, stepping back and letting go of me. "Learn some fucking manners, you dolt!" with that outburst, I kicked the sick bastard back, pointing my sword directly at his throat, my heart beating a mile a minute, gritting my teeth.

"You...Little bitch!" Freed shouted, looking at me with a look of fury, shakily getting to his feet and picking up his sword and pistol. "I'll tear that pretty little head right off your shoulders!" I scowled, lunging forward and swinging my sword at him, barely clipping him as he jumped back, his look of sadistic escstacy replaced with a twisted scowl.

"Come on! What's taking those Fallen Fuckwits so long?!" he growled, looking up at where the portal was. "Get in here already!" however, the portal seemed to be having complications, quivering and shutting as the air seemed to waver a slight bit. "W-what?!" I looked around the room for something that could be the source of the disruption, my gaze resting on the sister, who was leant against the wall in the corridor, a look of fear in her eyes as she looked at me, nodding her head to me as her hands glowed.

_"...I-is she...blocking them from getting through?"_ I blinked, looking back at Freed, scowling at him and pointing my sword at him once again. "I-it appears your friends aren't going to be showing up anytime soon, Freed." the Stray Priest turned his head, gritting his teeth as he pointed his own blade at me.

"Shut it, you stupid fucking harlot!" he snapped, his attention turning to the sister leant on the wall, letting out a cry of frustration. "Asia! Why are you putting up a barrier now?! The Devils are gone!" I heard a squeak come from the sister, the wavering in the air stopping as the barrier fell.

"I-I'm sorry, Mister Freed!" the girl stated, looking at him in horror as he began stalking towards her.

"It was you who was blocking the Fallen Angels from getting in, wasn't it?!" he snarled, looking prepared to rip her head off at a moment's notice. Before I had even realised what I was doing, I leapt in front of Freed, holding up my sword in a blocking stance.

"Don't even think about laying a fucking hand on her, you bastard!" I growled, glaring the man in the eyes, feeling my heart race with determination. "This girl is innocent when compared to you, Selzon!"

"Innocent?!" Freed exclaimed, glaring daggers at me as I stood sentinal in front of him. "She's Devil sympathising scum! Just like you, girl! Now outta my way before I start making heads roll!"

"I think not." I responded, trying not to crumble under the pressure of the situation and trying to keep my knightly mentality in check. Freed, without a moment's hesitation, let out a bellow of rage, swinging his sword down at me, to which I responded in kind, our blade's clattering as they clashed, I furrowed my brow, beginning to focus myself on manifesting my Sacred Gear, feeling the cold steel of the blue lance-gauntlet encapsulate my other arm, as I smacked Freed around the side of the head with it, hearing a satisfying clang and grunt as it took him off guard. Freed growled as he aimed his pistol at me, his growl turning to a chuckle as he glared me down.

"Finally~! Things are getting interesting~!" he barked, the maddened grin returning to his face, even wider than before. "I love it when my prey puts up a fight~!" with another cry, he swung his sword at me, the blade of light slashing over my hand, a horrid burning feeling raking over it as it struck me, like rat poison rubbed on an open wound, a tingling feeling being felt around the edge of the cut as my magic tried to numb the pain.

_"Why does this hurt so damn much?!"_ I thought to myself, attempting to tough out the searing pain, my eyes drawn to the ceiling, where a portal was opening once more. _"I have to get out of here...And I'm gonna do something really stupid when I do."_ in a blind panic, I struck Freed with the flat of my blade and the shaft of my lance, knocking him to the ground with a grunt, I felt my body kick into overdrive as I turned on my heels, making a dash out of the room, demanifesting my Sacred Gear, holstering my blade and hoisting the girl onto my shoulder, hearing her squeak in surprise and fright, dashing down the small corridor and tearing the door open, slamming it behind me as I ran out into the cold evening, the air biting at my exposed front as I hauled ass down the street.

"W-what are you doing? Where are you taking me?!" the girl cried, her voice slightly wavery because of the speed I was running, the pain in my hand beginning to numb.

"We'll figure that out later! Try and get a barrier up, like you did before!" I ordered, trying to keep as composed as possible as I turned to look at her, my vision impaired by her backside because of how I picked her up.

"O-okay! I-I...trust you." she said, a small glow beginning to show up behind me as she began quietly mumbling to herself. The sound of shouting and yelling was heard from further down the street as I dashed up and around a corner, following my vague knowledge of the city's layout until I reached the house, panting like a dog and sweating like a pig as I put the girl down on her feet, trying the door, finding it to be locked, I rooted around in my bag, which was miraclously still mostly intact, even after such an encounter, fumbling around with my housekeys and twisting them in the lock, grabbing the girl's hand and pulling her into the house, locking the door behind us.

"...A-are you okay?" I asked, after a moment of silence, looking the girl in the eyes, spying that her eyes were watering a tad. The girl sniffled, blinking and grabbed me, pulling me into a hug and putting her head on my shoulder.

"...T-thank you..." she stated, sniffling a little more, looking up at my face as she pulled away, a sad, yet grateful smile on her face. "T-thank you for...taking me away from them..." my heart swelled at the girl's words, a small smile creeping its way onto my face as I giggled slightly.

"...Aww, bless your heart...It's no problem." I responded, sighing as I looked over the girl for any wounds, still wincing slightly from my own. "...Are you hurting anywhere though?"

"N-no...Thankfully." the girl said, looking at my hand and grabbing it, a small gasp coming out of her as she looked over it. "W-wait! Why are you worrying about me when your hand's so...wounded?!" she asked, looking at me, then back at my hand. "Y-you're hurt!"

"H-huh?" I said, looking down at my lacerated hand, which was glowing slightly. "...Don't worry about that. I have healing magic, I can sort it out."

"...L-let me help you." she said, looking at me with a worried look. "I want to help you in some way, since you...more or less just saved my life." she grabbed my hand, hovering her other hand over the wound and beginning to focus, a small green glow was seen from a small ring on her finger as my wound began tingling, watching as the wound slowly began to close up, in moments, there was barely a scar left. "...There, all done."

"...You have healing magic too, huh?" I responded, looking at my hand, making sure the wound was all gone. "That's...quite convenient."

"Y-yes." the girl said, smiling softly, an admittedly endearing giggle escaping her. "It's a power I was born with, so I try to use it to help as many people as I can!"

"That's respectable." I responded, looking over her, feeling a bit of blood rush to my cheeks as I realised that her clothes were much the same as my own...sliced up the front, revealing a fair bit of her body. I cleared my throat, waving my hand in front of my own face, fanning myself. "I-I think we should get some more clothes...My mother would kill me if she saw me walking around like this." I began to guide the girl up the stairs, holding her arm as we both moved up, smiling softly as she followed. "...So, what's your name?"

"...A-Asia..." she responded, smiling back at me. "Asia Argento."

"...Well, it's nice to meet you Asia." I stated, bringing her to my room door and quietly opening it, looking back at her. "My name is Tylia Griffin."

"It's nice to meet you too, Tylia..." Asia stated, giggling a slight bit as we walked into my room. The room was decorated with blue painted walls, a brown carpet, along with some posters pinned to the walls, depicting various fantasy games I'd gotten into, a dresser was positioned next to my bed, with a old laptop and various game boxes stacked neatly on top of it, along with a similar wardrobe. I dismounted my sword from my belt, placing it horizontally on some nails which were mounted in the wall, stealing a glance at Asia as she looked around the room, quietly observing everything with a confused, yet delighted expression on her face. "Th-this room is wonderful! I don't think I've ever seen a room like this before..."

"I suppose this is a first for both of us then." I responded, smiling at her a slight bit, slightly amused by her amazement with my admittedly sub-par room. "This is the first time I've had someone who isn't family in this room." it was true, unlike Lyonette, I'd never really had anyone I could properly call a friend, as I always felt to awkward to properly make conversation with people, however, in this instance, it seemed like I was managing to converse half-decently.

"Ah, I see." Asia said, blinking and looking down, seemingly thinking. "...Sorry if I'm...intruding."

"It's alright." I stated, trying to give her as warm a smile as I could muster. "I'm happy to have company for once, other than my sister and mother."

"Your...sister?" she asked, looking at me, seemingly trying to recall something from earlier, a smile crept onto her face as she jumped a little bit. "O-oh! Was that girl who was with you- the one that looked kinda like you, was that her?"

"Yes, that was her." I confirmed, going over to my wardrobe and opening the door. "She's normally in the room adjacent to this one, but...as I'm sure you know, she's busy at the moment."

_"Come to think of it...What is Lyonette doing?"_ I thought to myself as I rummaged around for some spare clothes. _"She's probably helping the others tend to Issei...Which is odd, considering that Asia and I appear to be the only ones with any sort of healing magic, unless one of them has some healing magic of their own." _I pulled out a set of clothes, throwing them over to Asia as I pulled another set out for myself.

"A-are you sure that I can use these...?" Asia asked, tilting her head with a slightly startled look on her face. "I mean...what if I'm not able to give them back?"

"Don't worry about it." I reassured her, flashing a smile at her. "I have got plenty of clothes, so I won't miss that particular set, even if you aren't going to be giving them back."

"...T-thank you, again." she thanked me once again, looking a little upset for some reason. "I-I wish I could do more to help you here, but..."

"No, no. It's quite alright." I tried my best to sound as kindly as possible as I looked back over at her, clearing my throat. "Though, if you want to help me, I'd suggest getting changed. I'll be just outside the door." I quietly left the room, carrying my clothes, which were a simple shirt and pair of dress trousers. I quietly closed the door behind me as I stripped myself of what was left of my school uniform, sighing a tad as I looked down at myself.

_"Of course...My binder's been cut, just like the rest, figures..." _I exhaled softly, quietly putting my clothes on, struggling with the buttons on my shirt due to my bust no-longer being held back. _"Freed is utterly disgusting...I swear that next time I find that whelp, he's going to be getting beheaded by Percival." _I couldn't help but feel a small level of happiness at the thought of slaughtering the Stray Priest with my sword, although, perhaps the fact that the man is in Kuoh at all should be alarming enough to suck any enjoyment out of the concept. _"It looks like I'm going to have to keep a close eye on Asia from now on. Especially since Freed and his Fallen Angel friends are going to be hunting for her..."_

"T-Tylia! I'm done!" I heard Asia yell from inside the room, opening the door and peeking her head out. I turned to look at her, stepping inside and sitting on my bed.

"The next thing on the agenda is to ring my sister and ask about our next move." I said, picking up my bag and taking my phone out of it, sighing. "...Wow, I...never thought I would be saying that." I sighed, navigating my phone and going to my contacts, putting it to my ear as I began to call my sister.

_[Perspective of: Lyonette Griffin]_

"You...can't be serious." the words passed through my lips in shock of what I was hearing, raising an eyebrow at Rias.

"I am _entirely_ serious, Lyonette." Rias spoke coldly, her arms folded, a stern look on her face. "Your sister is a danger to us. You brought a person, who, judging by that sword of hers, is associated with the Church, into the club room with no regard for anything I'd told you."

"...Not to mention that she's a Holy Sword user." Kiba piped up suddenly, his expression gloomy, his tone matching.

"E-either way though, it's a little uncool to just...leave her there, ain't it?" Issei spoke, sitting on the couch and looking at everyone. "I mean, if we leave her with that creep, he'll kill her! Or worse.." Issei seemed to shudder at the thought, it was at this point that my phone began ringing, which startled me, the tension in the air lowering a little as I slowly picked up the phone, seeing the name upon it...'Sis', I gasped, accepting the call and putting it to my ear.

"...S-sis? Did you...get out okay?" I asked, my voice shaking, anticipating to hear sickening noises, or manic laughter. However, what I heard was instead, music to my ears.

_"Yes, I am alright, sister..." _I heard Tylia's voice through the phone, a feeling of slight relief washing over me. _"I made a friend, as well...But that's besides the point."_

"...A new friend?" I asked, looking at everyone around the room, sweating slightly as I felt them all stare at me. _"Don't tell me...She couldn't have, could she?"_

_"Yes. I rescued the sister which Freed was tormenting." _she said, a tad bit of happiness in her voice as she spoke, clearing her throat once more. _"...Which brings me to the reason why I'm calling. Could you ask Lady Gremory what I should do, now that I'm out safe? I believe I've dealt with Freed and his posse to the best of my ability." _I gulped, quietly looking over at Rias, who was shooting me a stern look, raising an eyebrow.

"...Y'know what, I'll put you on speaker, then you can ask her yourself..." I muttered, taking the phone from my ear and pressing the speaker button. "Hey, Rias, my sister wants to ask you some stuff." Rias raised an eyebrow, looking at the phone.

"What do you mean that you dealt with Freed and his posse?" she muttered, her voice sounding both impressed and angered at the same time. "Are you incinuating that you actually fought them?"

_"L-Lady Gremory! Um.." _Tylia squeaked through the phone, her voice cracking slightly as she spoke. _"Erm...Yes. Well...I fought Freed, however, the Fallen Angels never got the chance to get through because of Asia here..."_

_"Hello!"_ a squeaky voice came through the phone, seemingly sounding rather chipper and happy.

"I see..." Rias thought over this for a second, pursing her lips and walking over to me and the phone. "...Get to the school and come into the club room. We'll talk about it in here." she said, a slight look of exhasperation in her eyes. "We'll see you in a moment." she quietly hung up the phone, sighing as she looked at the floor.

"Why are we letting her come back?" Kiba asked, looking at Rias with a questioning look on his face. "She's a Holy Sword user."

"Regardless, if she managed to go toe-to-toe with Freed for our sake, she must be of some use to us." she replied, folding her arms and closing her eyes. "If she truly wished to harm us, I believe she would've done so already, and if she wishes to help us...Then we may have a rather useful ally."

"Why're you so fixated on her having a Holy Sword, Kiba?" I asked, looking over at the boy, tilting my head to the right. "Like, I know we're Devils and stuff, but surely it isn't that bad." Kiba seemed to grit his teeth and clentch his fists, staying silent.

"He...has a lot of bad memories associated with Holy Swords." Rias answered, looking at Kiba with a look of concern on her face. "It's best not to pry." I blinked, looking at Rias, then at Kiba again, suddenly feeling a little bit guilty.

"Ah, shit...Touchy subject? Sorry..." I muttered, slumping over a little and pouting a tad. "Now I just feel like an asshole..."

"At least you know not to bring it up again." Koneko suddenly piped up, fixing her gaze upon me with a glare in her golden eyes. For a small while, the only sounds that could be heard were the ticking of the clock, an awkward quiet running through the room, at one point, I swear I heard Equinox cough, as if to attempt to break the silence.

_"You alright?"_

**_"I'm allergic to awkward teenagers."_**

The door to the club room suddenly opened, the aroma of fish and chips wafted into the room as Tylia and the girl from before walked into the room, Tylia was wearing a pair of dress trousers and a shirt which seemed too tight for her- in fact, it looked like the chest of her shirt was about to burst, while holding something wrapped in paper, while the girl was wearing a similar outfit, with her shirt and trousers being a little too big for her. Koneko seemed to perk up a little, looking at the two of them, seeming to sniff the air as she eyed the two of them, specifically the paper wrapping in Tylia's hand.

"We are here! And we brought fish and chips!" Tylia proclaimed, walking into the room, with the girl, who I guessed was Asia, in tow.

"Fissshh~" I heard Koneko whisper, a smile on her face as she tracked the paper wrapping like a cat would track its prey. Rias giggled, looking at Tylia and Asia.

"You didn't have to bring food you know." she stated, putting a hand on her hip with a small smile. Tylia simply smiled and giggled nervously.

"I-I felt like buying everyone something to eat as a thank you for not...Y-you know, getting angry at me." she muttered, looking at Asia, then at all of us. "I also brought Asia with me, since I guessed you'd all want to meet her." Asia simply waved, giggling shyly.

"It's nice to meet you all.~" Asia stated, a smile on her face as she stayed behind Tylia.

"...Regardless of that, I'll have to ask you both to take a seat." Rias stated, folding her arms, her expression becoming a little more serious, watching as Tylia and Asia scrambled to sit down. "...Tylia. That's your name, is it not?" Rias asked her, tilting her head.

"Y-yes. That's my name." Tylia confirmed, a bead of sweat running down her brow.

"I would like you to recount the events that just transpired to me, please."

Tylia and Asia exchanged glances, my sister sighing quietly as she shuffled a little.

"Well, from when you all left..."

_[Perspective of: ?]_

Down an empty corridor, my footsteps echoed. The walls lined with door after door, with each having a number upon them, in my mind, I counted up to my destination, my eyes tracking each number as my black cloak swayed behind me, my shoes clattering against the floor with each step.

_"You better have a good reason for dragging me to your place, boss." _I siliently hissed, reaching the door I needed to be at, knocking on it loudly. It was a few seconds before the door creaked open, and a black haired man, with golden bangs, revealed himself.

"Ah, Maion! Come in, come in!" he said, opening the door to its fullest and stepping out of my way. Without a word, I stepped inside, afixing my cold blue eyes on the man as I entered.

"...Long time no see, I suppose?" I asked, my gaze unwavering as I stared him down. The man simply chuckled, going over to a couch and sitting down on it.

"Damn right. How long has it been? 500, 1000 years?" I frowned a tad as he spoke, sitting down on the adjacent seat, keeping my gaze trained on him.

"We've barely spoken since the end of the Great War. Even before that, we barely spoke, Azazel." I muttered, sitting back and crossing my legs. Azazel simply smiled, getting a bottle and a pair of glasses, pouring one out for himself.

"Do you want any wine, by the way? I've got plenty in." he asked, keeping the bottle in hand as he finished pouring some out, to which I simply shook my head.

"I'm afraid my host is underage, so I can't have any alcohol." I declined, folding my arms. "Though...I must ask. Why did you want me to come here? I'm meant to be retired, remember."

"Just wanted to catch up is all." he stated, putting the bottle of wine on the floor as he looked back at me.

"I find it hard to believe that you dragged me out of 'retirement' to simply catch up, especially someone like you." I grumbled, listening as Azazel laughed, holding his hands up defensively.

"Alright, you got me!" he stated, humor in his voice as he fixed me with a gaze. "I just wanted to ask...a favor of you." I sighed, putting a hand to my face.

"If it involves those Devils, I'm going to decline." I growled, glaring Azazel down, watching him shake his head.

"Nope." he responded bluntly, folding his arms once again. "...It's...about Raynare." I raised an eyebrow, blinking slightly.

"...What about her?" I asked, leaning forward a tad, tilting my head. Azazel's expression began to look a tad more grim as he sighed.

"...She's started attempting to hunt Sacred Gear users...As in, killing them." he began, sighing a little more. "Normally, I'd be okay with it, but considering the fact that she's full-on targeting people and attempt to take their Sacred Gears, I can't help but _not_ be okay with it."

"...And what do you want me to do about it?" I asked, blinking in confusion. "It's been more than a hundred years since I last used my powers properly, unless you count the Stray Devil who crossed me on the street..."

"...I just...want you to try and..." Azazel seemed to think about his words, folding his arms quietly. "...'Retrieve' her." I quietly mulled over these words, clearing my throat and standing.

"...I..." I looked at my boss, putting my hands in my coat pockets, clearing my throat again. "...I'll try my best."


	10. New Faces

_Chapter 10 - New Faces._

The clubroom was dead silent, the only sound in the room being that of the clock ticking, as well as the sound of Koneko chowing down on some of the fish that Tylia and Asia brought. I sat cross-legged next to Issei, my arms folded as I looked over to Tylia, who was sat on a chair adjacent to Rias, having just finished her explaination as to what happened with the exorcist guy.

"I apologise if my actions were out of line for you, Lady Gremory, but I merely did what I deemed right." she stated, folding her arms, afixing her green-eyed gaze to Rias, who simply stayed silent, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"I-I'm not sure how I feel about working with Devils..." Asia stated, glancing over from her spot knelt next to Issei, using her abilities to heal him, looking around at us all hesitantly, Tylia turned to her, flashing her a warm smile.

"I'll be honest, I'm not too sure either, Asia..." she stated, her smile staying on her face. "But...I suppose if we want to find out what's going on with those Fallen Angels, and the Stray Priest, we need all the help we can get." Asia stopped healing Issei, staring at the floor for a moment, donning a look of contemplation, tapping her foot and taking a small glance up at us all, her eyes scanning us, sighing quietly, before standing and walking over to Tylia, moving a tad closer to her.

"Okay." she stated, looking up at Tylia's and nodding with a smile. "I guess...If it'll help, we don't really have much of a choice." my sister gave the girl a tiny, seemingly quite forced smile, putting her arm around her in an attempt to comfort her, a sight which, as cute as it was, filled me with a hint of annoyance.

"I promise, I will not let anything bad happen to you." she spoke to her softly and reassuringly, an inflection which I've never heard Tylia's voice have before, not even when talking to me or my mom.

"Well," the small conversation between the two blonde girls was interrupted, as Rias spoke up, her voice still as confident as usual, with a slight hint of intrigue in her voice. "I have to admit, I'm quite impressed." Tylia quietly looked up at Rias, her arm still locked around Asia.

"Impressed by...what?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, her lips pursed. "I'm afraid I don't follow."

"Well, if what you're saying is true, you went toe-to-toe with an Exorcist, and lived, which is something I didn't expect from someone like you." the scarlet-haired Devil answered, a small smile on her face as she gazed at my sister, her arms to her sides and her legs crossed. "I'll be honest- I'd quite like it if you were to join my peerage, you'd make quite an excellent Knight.~"

"I disagree." I heard Kiba suddenly state, a cold gaze, which he had fixed on Tylia, drifting to Rias. "Not to be disrespectful, president, but I'm not sure I'd like to be the same piece as a Holy Sword user..." this was met with a confused glare from Rias, who simply sighed, closing her eyes and waving her hand dismissively.

"I'm sure I can think of something." she continued, her gaze once again directed at my sister. "So, what of it, miss Griffin? Wanna join your sister as one of my Devil servants?"

"I'm afraid I will have to decline." Tylia responded, after a moment of thought. "Though I may ally myself with you, I am a warrior of God, first and formost. My soul is not for sale." Rias responded with a simple head tilt, before nodding slowly.

"That's alright." standing up, the Devil put a hand on her hip, taking one of those flyers off of the table, handing it to Tylia. "But just remember, the offer still stands. If you ever need me, just use the circle on this flyer." Tylia simply stared at the flyer for a moment, slowly stuffing it in her pocket, glancing at Rias.

"I will bear that in mind." she mumbled, taking her arm from around Asia and sitting back.

"Regardless...If we're in agreement as allies, then I guess that makes you an honourary member of the Occult Research Club!" Rias stated, a hint of enthusiasm in her voice, which didn't seem to rub off on my sister. It was then followed by a moment of silence, with even Koneko's fish eating frenzy being quiet, with no sound, I simply sighed, leaning back and crossing my arms.

_"Should I tell them about the Stray Devil that we fought earlier?" _I pondered, looking around the room, trying to gauge the tension. _"...No, Rias'll probably call a search and destroy operation on her or some shit...I'll wait for a bit."_

"So...Not trying to be a bother, or sound like a creep, but..." Issei suddenly stated, a cringe crossing my face, as I knew he was about to say something that would creep everyone in the vicinity out. "...Is it just me, or are Tylia's boobs way bigger than usual?!" he stated, redfaced as he stared at my sister's chest, much to her disgust.

"Issei, now's the not the time to be perving out!" I stated, planting my hand on my face, shaking my head. "Leave the poor washboard- Er..." I stole a glance at Tylia, who looked at me with a slight glare as I tried to think of a more fitting word to use.

"I think that's quite enough of that." Rias intervened, putting a hand up in order to halt us. "Either way, tonight has been quite hectic...I'd suggest that you all go home for the night. Unless any of you have questions?" I sighed softly, standing up, hauling my bag onto my shoulder, looking over at Tylia and Issei.

"Alright, Tyls, Issei, you heard the lady. Let's get a move on." I stated, watching as Issei stood up, groaning as he did so. Tylia and Asia, however, stayed stationary, staying in their seats.

"If it isn't too much trouble, Lady Gremory...When everybody leaves, may I ask a favour of you?" my sister inquired, tilting her head at Rias in curiosity. "It's about Asia..."

"Hm?" Rias grunted, looking over at her with slightly widened eyes. "Of course, I'd be happy to see what I can do." I couldn't help but wonder what she was wanting to ask her, stealing a glance over at Issei, who seemed to mirror my thoughts.

"You staying behind, sis?" I asked, turning a look back at Tylia, her expression fairly unreadable, simply nodding in response. "...Okay, I'll see you at home, I guess." Issei quietly walked over to me, following me as I walked out of the room.

"What do you think Tylia's gonna be askin' Rias?" he asked me, seemingly just as curious as I was. "Your sister's acting pretty weird..."

"Tell me about it." I scoffed, frowning a tad as we walked out the door. "Way she was talking with Asia- You'd think she'd have known her all her life..." I couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy for the girl, what with Tylia treating her better than she ever treat me.

"Gotta admit though...That Asia girl is pretty nice. Both in the looks department and the niceness department~!" Issei stated, sounding a tad excited as he spoke. "Like, she tried to save me from that Freed guy when he was kicking my ass!" for a small moment, I felt my heart sink, my slight frown turning into a full on scowl as I cast my head down, with a small mutter escaping me.

"She managed to save you, while I let you fucking die...Lovely." it came out of no-where, barely audible, but wasn't meant to be anything more than a thought. Issei blinked, looking at me with a hint of confusion on his face.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" he asked, looking incredibly confused by the statement. I blinked, my head raised back up, my eyes darting to my friend.

"Eh? Don't worry about it." I responded, trying to gloss over the thought I just had, pushing it to the back of my mind, trying to change the subject once more. "...S-so, uh...Tylia's tits?"

"Y-yeah?" Issei responded, looking ever more befuddled than before. "What about 'em?"

* * *

The room had been vacated not long after Lyonette and Issei left for home, with only Tylia, Asia, Rias and Akeno remaining inside. Tylia and Asia were sat together on the sofa, Akeno laying out a tray with a few cups of tea on them onto the table with a giggle, flashing a smile over the two blonde girls.

"So, what was this favour you wanted to ask?" Rias asked, sat atop a chair of her own, her back to the fireplace, her legs crossed and focus put forward.

"We were going to discuss that after everyone left, were we not?" Tylia mused, frowning over to the red-head, a slight look of uncomfort on her face.

"Akeno will be staying to listen. That's okay, right?" Rias responded with a smile, putting her elbow on her lap and propping her head up. "With that being said, what is this favour?" A few seconds of silence passed, Tylia opening her mouth to speak, thinking about how to articulate her request.

"...Do you think you could try and pull some strings to have Asia enroled in the school?" she asked, her words shaky, with a tad bit of worry in her voice. Asia stole a glance at Tylia, wide-eyed in surprise. "I-I've promised her that I won't allow anything bad to happen to her, I wish for her to be enroled so I can keep a better eye on her." Rias took a moment to think over this, before a small smirk came to her face.

"Of course. I can do everything in my power to get her enroled, however..." she began, tilting her head to the side, fixing her gaze to Tylia. "I want something in return."

Tylia furrowed her brow, folding her arms, her eyes never relieving the red-head from her sight. "And may I ask, what might that be?"

"I wish for you to become a servant of mine, like we discussed earlier." she stated, confidence in her voice as she spoke, a smile on her face. "As I said, you'd make quite the Knight, and I have a few Pieces spare." Tylia sighed, her eyes darting to Asia, who's look of shock had yet to subside, her gaze drifting to the floor.

"And as I stated earlier, I will have to decline." she responded assertively, a bead of sweat running down her brow. "My goal is to protect the innocent, not sell my soul away to a Devil masqurading as a beautiful woman."

"But with the added power you'd gain, you'd be able to protect people more efficently." Rias stated, putting both her hands on the arm rests of the chair, observing a confused look on Akeno's face "That seems like a fairly good trade-off to me."

"I refuse to give in to you, Rias Gremory!" Tylia shouted, getting to her feet and putting her fist up at the Devil in front of her, her voice louder and more booming that it had ever been, her face scrunched in anger. "I will never sell my soul to you in my_ life!_" Rias took a moment to look over Tylia, noticing her violent stance, her mouth open a tad, surprised by her boldness.

"Well then, if that is so, and I cannot convince you then..." Rias giggled a tad, looking up at Tylia with a small grin. "I will see what I can do for you~!" Tylia was quiet for a moment, before letting out a small squeak, looking at Rias, perplexed.

"J-just like that?!" she spluttered, going a tad red in the face. "N-no more convincing, or threats or anything like that?! Just...That?!"

"Do you want me to try and convince you more?" Rias responded with a teasing giggle. "I can't exactly force you, can I?" Tylia stood, jaw agape as she stared Rias down, before turning away, her mouth twisting into a pout.

"N-no! I don't need any more convincing!" she proclaimed, slowly sitting herself back down next to Asia, her gaze still turned away. "Th-that will be fine!"

"Just leave it up to me, I'll try and get it all sorted for you." Rias reassured, sitting back and laughing a little. "Seeing you act like that was payment enough for me~!"

"W-wait...Does that mean that I'm going to be part of this school soon?" Asia asked, looking between Rias and Tylia. "I-I've never been to school before!"

"Don't worry about a thing, I'm sure Rias can pull some strings.~" Akeno stated, rather forcibly, stealing a questioning glance at Rias, who simply nodded in response. "I-I think you two should start heading home now.~ It's getting rather late.~"

"Yes, yeah! Right away! Right away!" Tylia stated, clearly still flustered as she got to her feet, looking at Asia. "C-come on, Asia. Let's get home before I have an aneurysm..." before long, the two were leaving the room, with Rias and Akeno waving them out happily. A moment after the two left, Akeno slowly turned to Rias, her expression turning to confusion.

"...What was that about?" Akeno asked, staring at Rias, looking completely lost. "You were being weirdly pushy with her..." Rias responded only with a chuckle, putting her hand to her own chin.

"Nothing much...It's just that I have a little bit of a plan for her~" she stated, standing up and stretching, giggling softly. "Anyway, could you get the shower ready for me? I've got to call my brother up about something." Akeno studied Rias' expression, before slowly nodding.

"I will do, Rias~"

* * *

I grunted a little as I laid myself down on my bed, tossing my bag to the foot of it and laying my head against the pillow, sighing.

"Shit just keeps getting weirder and weirder by the day..." I groaned, staring up at the ceiling, hearing the rustling of my bag as Ragna climbed out, padding her way over to me and laying herself on my chest. "Fallen Angels, Devils, and now fucking exorcists? What's next, is the pope gonna come and kick my ass or something?!"

_"It's all over with now, is it not?" _Ragna tried to reassure me, looking at me with beady red eyes, the small dragon shuffling around a tad. _"The only thing you should be worrying about right now is sleeping."_

"Easy for you to say, you're just a tiny little dragon!" I responded, my eyes darting to Ragna, a slight frown on my face. "You don't have anything to worry about! While I've got a social life and shit to keep in check!"

_"That is true. But even still, dwelling on it isn't going to help you." _she stated, tilting her head and nestling down. I simply sighed, laying my head back down, putting a hand to my head and rubbing my temple.

"Yeah, whatever." I muttered, staring back up at the ceiling. "At least you don't have a family which thinks shit of you, or friends who only look at you as some kind of tool or object..." I sighed, closing my eyes and turning over onto my side, sniffling a little, feeling Ragna wriggle a tad, a rather substanstial amount of weight being felt behind me.

_"Not to mention the fact that she doesn't have to worry about whether anyone she knows is going to die because of her..."_

"Don't be silly, Lyonette." she spoke softly and reassuringly, I felt a hand pat me on the head, opening my eyes to see that Ragna had shifted back into her human form, kneeling down and bearing a warm, caring smile, patting her lap with her other hand. "I'm not sure how things have been for you before I showed up, but I promise, they'll be much better from now on." after a moment, I felt Ragna put her arms around my chest, hoisting me up and laying my head on her lap, somehow feeling softer than the pillow I was formerly laid on. "I'm sure your family loves you, and your friends...well, I'm sure they care for you deeply." I blinked, open mouthed, unsure of how to feel about the situation I was in.

"But...My mother never really talks to me much, other when I'm sick, Tylia's always treated me like garbage and Issei and the other two only keep me around because I'm a girl..." I protested, looking up into Ragna's heterochromic eyes, which were filled with a surprising amount of kindness.

"That may be true...But, things will turn out alright in the end." she crooned, stroking my head softly, smiling brightly. "You have more friends now, do you not? Rias, Akeno, Koneko, all of them? Besides, you've got Copper only a text away, as well as the girl who you were talking to earlier.~"

"T-the girl I was talking to earlier?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "You mean the Stray Devil who I wound up attacking?"

"Yes." Ragna softly articulated, a small giggle escapng her. "She seemed rather happy to be speaking to you, so I have no doubts that you'll become friends with her when you talk to her tomorrow~!"

"...I guess." I muttered simply, still a bit flustered due to the position I was in. Ragna continued to stroke her hands through my hair, shuffling a tad to a point where she was laying next to me, wrapping her arms around me gently.

"I think you should get some rest now." she stated, rubbing my back comfortingly. "I'll be here if you need me~"

"T-thanks..." I squeaked out, turning my head back to peer at Ragna as she took my glasses off, putting them on the side table.

"Goodnight, Lyonette~" I heard her say through the blurriness, her voice rather calming to hear.

"...G-g'night, Ragna." I responded, turning my head back to my front, closing my eyes.

_**"It's lovely seeing you two get along. You're like sisters~"**_ Equinox butted in, giggling softly. _**"Goodnight~"**_

And so, I slipped into what was possibly the comfiest sleep I'd had since Copper left for America, yawning quietly and nestling up to Ragna.

* * *

The school day seemed to end as quickly as it began, it only felt like an hour or so had passed before we were all packing up to go home. Did I zone out and miss everything, or did I actually have fun for once? Probably the first one, to be fair, because I felt like I wasn't even on the right planet when the bell interrupted my thoughts. Today had been uneventful so far, I woke up with Ragna asleep on the ironing board I call my chest, I got breakfast, then walked to school. The only thing I had to look forward to today was going to talk to that Devil girl me and Tylia wreaked havoc on last night.

"Hey, Lyo?" once again, my thoughts were interrupted as Issei spoke up, standing next to my desk and looking down at me. "You good to go?" he asked as I stole a glance up at him.

"...I'll have to catch up to you in a bit." I spoke, standing up from my seat and grabbing my bag, putting it over my shoulder. "When you go into the club room, could you tell Rias that I'm just gonna be doing something real quick?" Issei simply raised an eyebrow, looking at me inquisitively.

"Uh...sure? I can do." he said, confusion evident in his voice, seemingly picking up on how out of character it was for me.

"Right...Thanks." I stated, moving past Issei, nodding at him. "I'll be in the clubroom in about...Give or take half an hour or so." Issei simply nodded, clearly perplexed by the entire exchange, his eyes tracking me as I walked out of the classroom, making my way over to the gym, sneaking behind the large building and looking around the area. Sat on the ground, idily scrolling on her phone, was the uniform-donning Stray we'd fought yesterday, her appearance now more clear in the daylit shade. She had her hair up in a pair of twintails, which seemed to go to her shoulders, her bangs going to her collar with her fringe covering one of her eyes. Her red eyes darted up to look at me, before she began to smile, putting her phone away in the pocket of the coat she wore.

"Well, hey! Didn't expect you to actually show up." she stated, her voice still just as smug as the previous night, albeit, a little more composed.

"Yeah...You know what they say, curiousity killed the cat." I stated, walking a little closer to the girl and studying her expression, before slowly peering around, beginning to have the feeling of being watched.

"Being awfully casual, talkin' to someone you almost wasted last night, aren't you?" she replied with a giggle, getting to her feet. I sighed, putting a hand on my hip, already knowing full well that this was going to be a headache and a half.

"Can't exactly beat the shit out of you with people watching, can I?" I fired back, stuffing my hands in my pockets, looking away from her and over to a nearby dumpster.

"I guess not~" she spoke, nodding and holding her hand out to me, her smile faultering a little. "No hard feelings for last night, right?" I blinked, looking back over to her and tilting my head.

I toyed with the idea of bringing up exactly what happened last night, and how the whole thing was a huge, uncomfortable clusterfuck of confusion, but decided it was best to keep quiet.

"...Sure." I stated simply, leaning against the wall, keeping my eyes locked on the girl. "...What did you want me for, anyway? I'm a little late for my club, and you didn't exactly say much...In fact, all you did was tell me to meet you here and acted really weird about it." There I was, once again, letting words slip out without thinking first.

"Oh- That~" she muttered, giggling a tad, putting her arms behind her back, continuing to grin like a fool. "Sorry about that~ I'll admit...I kinda got ahead of myself there, my bad." she leant against the wall, mirroring my action, that smug grin still plastered over her face.

_"I'll say..."_

"I mean...At least you're admitting it?" I responded with deadpan delivery, unsure of how to feel about the exchange. The girl stretched her arms, putting them behind her head slowly.

"Yeah...I mean, I'll be honest, I'm pretty shit at bein' honest, but I try~" she nodded along, her eyes remaining glued to me. "Aaanyway, name's Lilith Shukano~!" she stood up straight, holding a hand out to me, sounding far too pleased with introducing herself.

"Uh...My name's Lyonette Griffin." I replied, slowly taking her hand and shaking it, returning her gaze. "Nice to meet you, I guess?" Lilith simply giggled, flashing a wink at me.

"You didn't need to introduce yourself too, y'know~ I already know who you are~" she spoke with a giggle in her voice, taking her hand away from me and returning it to the back of her head. "Lyonette Griffin, the chick who's always hanging about the Three Muskyteers, and is somehow in kahoots with the most popular girl in the school...Pretty much everyone knows at this point."

_"Three Muskyteers? I might use that one myself..."_

"Wait, what do you mean 'Everyone knows'?" I asked, the wording dawning on me, raising an eyebrow at the girl with the Cheshire Cat-like grin.

"Yeah! Ever since you and the spikey haired dude walked into school with Gremory, people've been talking a lot about it." she spoke with not a hint of irony in her voice, only a tone which suggested she found it hillarious. "Hell, that's kinda the reason I even bumped into you last night, kinda wanted to...Y'know, have a better look at you."

"Have a better look at me?!" I questioned, my eyebrow raised to a point where it couldn't be raised any higher. "What am I, some kinda exhibit?!"

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger!" Lilith stated, holding her hands up defensively. "I'm just tellin' you what I've heard!"

I prepared to give her an earful about the whole thing, my brain whipping a script to yell in her face, but, alas, I found myself frozen in place, a loud squeak escaping me as I felt the sensation of something squeezing my backside. In a panic, I turned around to look at whatever was groping me, seeing a female student behind me, who had a small smirk on her face.

I'd never seen this girl around school before, in fact, that kinda goes for Lilith as well, but this girl, unlike the fairly generic looking black hair that many students at the school had, had hair that was coloured a scarlet red...In fact, it was more or less the same red that Rias' hair was, upon looking at her a little closer, she ressembled Rias quite a bit, having the same blue eyes, as well as the same sort of facial structure, however, she was a bit shorter, with her bust _definitely_ being smaller than Rias'. Her hair was fairly short, only going down to her neck, with a strand sticking up from her fringe and a small ponytail on the side of her head. If I would've squinted, I would've probably completely mistaken her for the president.

However, at the time I did not notice these features, all _I _noticed was a girl behind me who was touching my rear...and had seemingly come out of nowhere.

"WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU COME FROM?!" I exclaimed, stepping back with wide eyes, feeling a bit too surprised to resort to violence.

_**"I think you figured out what was watching you, Lyonette."**_

_"I don't need this shit right now!"_

The girl did not respond, she simply darted over behind a nearby bush with a giggle, barely even leaving me much time to think about what just happened.

"H-hey! You can't just do that shit and run off, get back here!" I darted over to the bush, pulling it back...and finding nothing there. I made a noise that can only be described as the sort of noise you'd make if you stubbed your toe in the middle of the night and didn't want to wake anybody up, glancing over at Lilith, who looked just as confused as I did. "Y-you saw that, right? I'm not going mad, am I?"

"Hm..." Lilith said, blinking her eyes as she stared at me blankly. "I mean, what I saw was you yelling at nothing, and darting over to a bush, so...I think you're going mad either way." she stated it in a tone that sounded honest, she didn't giggle, or anything like that, she just bluntly stated it as fact. I held a hand over my head, racking my brain, trying to figure out what on Earth just happened.

"Like...Seriously, you okay?" she asked, stepping over to me and putting a hand on my shoulder, raising an eyebrow sincerely. "Is that sorta thing normal for you, or...?" for the first time since I began talking to her, she wasn't smirking, or giggling, or anything to that capacity, she looked at me with genuine concern.

"N-no..." I stated, looking at her, frowning a tad. "...S-so, you really didn't see that? Some red haired girl touching my ass?"

"Nope." Lilith stated, smirking a little and giggling. "I'll be honest, it sounds like you're having fantasies about Rias or something.~" I blinked slowly, looking down at the ground, my gaze lingering down there for a bit. I hadn't even thought about it like that, considering the way I was acting around Rias the first time I met her, as well as all the freaky shit that's been happening recently, it would have made sense...However, there was a problem with that logic.

"...Can't be, it wasn't Rias." I spoke, directing a glance back at Lilith, seeing her expression as more friendly than mocking, like how it'd been before. "She looked a bit like her, but it wasn't her."

"I mean, I dunno." she stated, patting my head gently, still smiling. "I don't know what's going on in that head of yours, so I have no idea what you saw."

"Ah...well..." I sighed, putting a hand on my hip, frowning, finding no point in saying anything more. "...Sorry about that, either way, don't know what came over me..."

"It's cool~" she stated, laughing a tiny bit, before her expression returned to looking serious. "But...Do you want me to walk you to your club? Just to make sure nothing happens to you on your way over." I couldn't help but feel a bit of warmth in her words as she spoke, seemingly acting completely unlike she did before.

"I mean...sure, it's not too far from here." I replied, smiling at her softly, feeling somewhat grateful for her offer.

_"Maybe this Lilith chick isn't as bad as I thought..."_

It wasn't long before we were on our way, wandering from behind the gym and towards the old school building. We walked in mostly silence, with Lilith occasionally stealing a glance at me to make sure I wasn't having another hallucination, but before long, we made it to the door without any incident.

"It was nice meeting you!" I exclaimed to her as I continued walking to the door, watching her as she waved me off with a smile.

"Likewise!" she exclaimed back, turning around with a giggle, watching me as I opened the door. "Oh, by the way?" I heard her call out behind me, causing me to turn my head.

"Huh? What's up?" I asked, tilting my head at her, noticing the mischevious smirk on her face.

"I was lying when I said that I didn't see anything~" she yelled at me, waving as she turned and walked away. "I saw it all, you're not going crazy...Anyway, bye~!"

It took me a moment to process what was just said, my smile slowly fading from my face, as I remembered one of the first things she said to me...

_"I'll be honest, I'm pretty shit at bein' honest,"_

"...Motherfucker!" I yelled, frowning and going into the old school building, my face going a tad red at the realisation that I hadn't just been lied to, but I'd believed the lie very easily. I groaned, leaning against the door as I closed it, unable to fathom the fact that I'd been tricked so easily.

_"I thought I was smarter than that...Damn it to Hell!"_

I growled a tiny bit, beginning to stalk my way up the stairs, dragging my feet to the clubroom, slowly opening the door and entering. I was met with the sight of all the rest of the club members, all doing their own things, while Issei and Rias stood near where the shower was, talking to each other, the latter of them turning towards me and flashing a smile.

"Oh, speak of the Devil." Rias spoke with a laugh, waving over at me. "You didn't go off to cause trouble, I hope?"

"Like I said, she was kinda evasive about it..." Issei muttered, looking over at me and waving himself. "Heya, Lyo."

"Hey..." I stated, closing the door behind me and wandering over to the two of them. "Didn't miss anything, did I?"

"Nothing really, in fact, you're more or less on time~!" she responded cheerily, before she began peering around the room, her expression going a tad dark. "..._She_ certainly isn't, though." Issei and I both looked at her, both of us sharing a confused expression.

"Who're you talking about?" Issei asked her, being the first to speak up about it, only getting us a headshake in response from Rias.

"Don't worry about it, I've been waiting for someone for a bit, and she hasn't shown up yet, so..." she sighed, looking over at everyone else for a moment. "Since she hasn't shown up, I guess she'll have to play catch up later." it was less than a few seconds later that an unfamiliar voice piped up from behind Rias.

"If you're talking about me, I'm already here." the source of the voice, I found, was coming from a girl who had suddenly popped up next to the shower, a girl I immediately recognised as the girl who was groping me earlier, simply standing there, leant against the wall with a somewhat deadpan expression on her face. I double taked, before blinking, growling a little.

"Hey! You're the one who touched my butt!" I yelled, most abasively, and to everyone else's sudden surprise.

"...And might i say, it was a fine piece of ass~" the girl stated, an inflection in her voice I'd only ever heard from Issei and the other two Muskyteers. I heard Rias groan loudly, clearly unhappy with this result, planting a hand on her own face and rubbing it.

"W-whoa! Where'd she come from?!" Issei cried, stepping back a bit, before the girl's words seemed to sink into him. "A-and...Was it really that good?" and there it was, that pervy, hormonal inflection that made me kick into fight or flight, at this point, my muscle response to the tone just felt natural, and I almost didn't notice my elbow striking Issei's sternum, resulting in a yelp and a cough from the poor guy.

"Everyone...Meet my half-sister, Iida Tsukido." Rias muttered spitefully, putting an outstretched hand out, pointing to the red-headed girl with it, clearly not enjoying the experience at all. Iida, on the other hand, despite her deadpan expression, had a slight look of complacence in her eyes, simply bowing in response to her sister's words.

"Pleased to meet you all." she stated, her voice sounding surprisingly reserved, considering the foul shit she had said a minute prior, having the same sort of fancy way of speaking as Rias, but with a little more of an accent. A moment of silence passed, before Koneko spoke up with a sigh.

"Oh great, there's _two _perverts now."

_"Fuckin' tell me about it."_ I would've responded, if not for the door opening the moment I was about to speak, with Tylia and Asia entering in a hurry.

"Sorry we're late!" Asia cried, nearly tripping and falling, before being caught by Tylia. "Tylia wanted to go get some food before we came here!"

"Don't have to announce it to the world...but yes." Tylia stated, pouting a tiny bit, a flush rising in her cheeks. "Apologies. I had to go get Asia from the house...and get food."

"The gang's all here, I see?" Iida piped up, putting her hand on her hip as she looked over us all. "Sheesh, Zechs wasn't kidding when he said your peerage had grown." her gaze lingered on me for a moment, before she directed it at her sister.

"...Yes, these are my servants, Iida, I would've thought that would be fairly obvious." she responded, sighing and putting a hand on her hip, putting the other on her head. "...Let's just get the announcements out of the way, so we can get to the actual activities..." the busty red-head walked over to the front of the room, sitting on a small cabinet with her legs crossed, gesturing to Tylia and Asia to sit down. "My sister is going to be helping out with contracts for a while, per my brother's request...So, as a result, she's going to be in the club with us for the foreseeable future."

"I look forward to working with my little sister and her servants!" Iida stated, walking next to Rias with a meek, yet slightly menacing smile on her face.

"Little sister?! But, you look way younger!" Issei cried out, his face a picture of confused horror. "Your tits are way small-" I quickly silenced Issei with a swift elbow to the ribs, causing him to react with the same yelp and cough as before. "Ow! S-stop doing that, Lyo..."

"I mean, you are correct...But even still.~" Iida bluntly articulated, leaning against the wall and giggling. "I am the older one out of the two of us, therefore, your master is my little sister~" she brought a hand up to Rias' head, patting her like a child, which is a fitting treatment, considering the fact that she was pouting like one, her cheeks nearly as red as her hair.

"You could at least word it in a less embarassing way..." Rias grumbled, clearly embarassed by the whole exchange.

"Just be glad that Zechs didn't give me the old photo album before I left~" Iida teased, taking her hand away from her apparent little sister's head. Meanwhile, while the rest of the club chatted idily amongst themselves and to Rias and her sister, I was left trying to figure out what was currently happening.

_"So, the girl who touched my ass earlier...was Rias' sister?" _I recapped for myself, trying to process all this new information._ "...I didn't even know Rias had siblings..."_

**_"In all fairness, you haven't known Rias for all that long."_** I heard Equinox's fairly aloof voice ring out through my head, stated in a matter-of-factly tone. _**"I'm willing to bet that there's plenty more you don't know about her, either, so I wouldn't be too surprised."**_

_"I know, you're right, but even still..." _I mentally responded, leaning against the wall and idily watching everyone else as they chattered. _"I didn't take Rias for the little sister type...I mean, I know I gave Issei shit for pointing it out, but she certainly does not look older." _my eyes instinctively scanned the chests of the two red-heads, a slight bit of crimson tinting my cheeks. _"Yep, Rias' rack is definitely bigger...One look at the two of them, and you'd think it'd be the other way around."_

**_"I suppose that's true...Though, you say that, but look at you and your sister."_**Equinox replied, curtly, my eyes drifting down to my own chest on impulse. _**"You're the older one out of you and Tylia, but you're flat as a board, aren't you~?" **_the red of my cheeks deepened a tad, a frown crossing my face as my eyes darted to the side.

_"We're twins, though...Neither of us are the older one."_

**_"...Well, at least one of you two got your mother's genetics~"_**a giggle resounded around my mind as she began to laugh teasingly.

_"H-hey! Cut that shit out!"_

**_"My my, that must have hit you hard~! You're stuttering in your own thoughts~!" _**by this point, Equinox's laughter beginning to become manic, clearly finding much amusement in my response to her scathing remarks about my less-than-average bust.

_"A-at least I have tits, miss Figment-Of-My-Imagination!" _I decided to fire back on the bullying little voice, putting a hand on my hip.

_**"Barely!" **_her voice, once fairly reserved, yet patronising, was now barely legible through her laughter. _**"My youngest sister had breasts bigger than yours~!"**_

_"YOU HAVE A SISTER?!"  
_

"Um...Miss Lyonette, are you okay?" I was snapped out of my thoughts by the squeaky, somewhat irritating voice of Asia, realising that I was being spoken to.

"Huh?" I murmured, my brain switching off airplane mode and booting up once more as I frantically looked around the room, finding that Issei, Koneko and Akeno were missing from the room, with the gazes of everyone else affixed on me, Asia and Tylia standing in front of me.

"Sister, Lady Gremory said that you were on flyer duty with Hyodou, you should probably get going." Tylia snapped, sounding less than enthused by my abscent-mindedness.

"W-wait, what are you going to be doing, then?" I asked, tilting my head at her, my brain once again parsing the information that was just relayed to me.

"I've told her to show Asia around the town while everyone does their own jobs." Rias stated, sitting on the couch rather than the cabinet. "That way, she isn't just sat around doing nothing."

"It was my suggestion~" Iida interjected, remaining in her leaning position against the wall.

"Oh...Well then, uh..." I looked around the room, quietly going over to the table, where a stack of flyers was sat. "I'll get on the flyer job, I guess."

And so began the menial, but necessary task of handing out Rias' dumb little flyers, which was sure to be an exhilarating experience, as always. As Tylia and Asia exited the room, I followed, holding the stack of paper in my arms, trudging along behind them.

_"Better get this done quickly..."_

* * *

**Hello there! Thank you for reading the story so far~ I'd like to hear what you all think so far, so if you feel inclined to do so, please leave a review! And if you put a question in the review, I'll try and answer it!**

**Next chapter: Tylia and Asia go on a tour of Kuoh town, bonding in the process, meanwhile, Lyonette furiously attempts to track Issei, alwhile handing out flyers.**

**Thank you for reading once again, and I'll see you next chapter~!**


	11. Side-Chapter 1: Memories of haze

_**First of all: DISCLAIMER, this chapter has a fair bit of upsetting imagery in it, if you are sensitive to that sort of thing, please either excercise caution while reading, or skip over this entirely. **_

_**This chapter takes place during the events of chapter 11, but will not overlap with it.**_

* * *

Side-chapter 1 - Memories of haze

"Flyer duty again..." I groaned, walking my bike down the street, gazing at the pile of papers in the basket at front of it, the sound of bustling city streets and the clicking of my bicycle's chains being all I could hear, the sound beginning to grate on me. "Devil Servant? More like...Just, a servant." It was quite funny, actually. That I, Issei Hyodou, possibly the biggest loser in the history of Kuoh academy, was also the biggest loser in the history of the Devil world, probably. Lyonette gets a cool gauntlet, and what do I get? A tiny red thing which looks cool, but does fuck all. Tylia got catcalled by the president before she was even brought into the club, meanwhile all I've got in mild praise. What part of any of this is fair?

I suppose it's what you get when you spend most of your life acting like a dumb perverted douchenozzle. I don't blame anyone for thinking that of me, if anything, I'm jealous. I wish that was all there was to me, to just be an idiot with a fixation on boobs. Sure, nothing wrong with a rack that bigger than my head, but I _wish_ it was that simple. These things were all I could think about as I turned a corner, arriving at an all too familar crosswalk. I sighed, putting a hand up to my head and pressing onward, my gaze lingering on the road.

"Can't believe it's been 5 years already." I grumbled, remembering details of events long passed and a friendship that fell to shambles.

Ages ago, I had a friend, she was my only friend, and for the short time that I knew her, we got along really well, though, I can never remember her name. She moved away shortly before I started elementary school, and to be honest, when she moved so suddenly, it had took me by surprise and upset me a fuck-ton. A while after, just when we were starting to transition over to middle school and I was starting to give up on the concept of having friends, I met two new kids, who'd just transferred over from different schools, one was a dude, the other was a chick, Copper and Lyonette. You had Copper, pretty intelligent and a tiny bit on the rude side, who moved over from god-knows where, barely saying much about himself, and then you had Lyonette, a pretty dim-witted, but sufficently kind-hearted girl who reeked of 'himedere' for a while. In hindsight, it made a lot of sense that they wound up dating.

We all got along really well, and it only got better when we started middle school. We always hung out at recess and after school, messed with each other, it was all a lot of fun. But around the beginning of our first year of middle school, our new friend group gained a new member: Her name was Sylvia, and she was Lyo's cousin, and...well, damn.

She was a pleasure to have around, always really happy-go-lucky, energetic, sung like a goddess, not to mention that she was just as much of a perv as I was. She had really blue eyes, and weirdly soft looking silver hair, and always seemed to be smiling her worries away, drawing everyone's attention seemingly out of nowhere, always talking about her dreams of becoming a pop idol and always bringing a smile to everyone's faces, whether it was me, Lyo and Copper, or the other students. Overall, if she made it to Kuoh with us, she would've been _smokin'_. It was kinda from her where I picked up my whole pervy deal and it was actually through her that I met Matsuda and Motohama, since she was the one who kept showing them all the peeping spots she'd found. Her and I got on like two peas in a pod, and it was probably the closest I ever got to having an actual girlfriend, hell, she _would've _been my first girlfriend...if only I'd let her.

And then, one summer, a few days before Lyo's birthday on the 15th of August, during our summer break, transitioning from our middle school to Kuoh, I was walking home from school with her, chatting to her idily, trying our damnedest to ignore the horrible heat, walking down the road and powering through the haze.

_"It'll be really cool to be going to a place full of chicks!" _I had excitedly exclaimed, feeling like a kid in a candy shop, looking at Sylvia with a goofy grin on my face.

_"Yeah..." _she'd mumbled, prefacing her speech with a nervous chuckle, her smile seeming a fair bit more forced that it had before. I took notice, tilting my head slowly, knowing that her behaviour was odd. _"...Uh, can I ask you a really strange question?" _she said suddenly, after a moment of silence and staring, her voice meek and shaky, uncharacteristic for her.

_"Sure? Ask me anything!" _I replied, feeling my heart stop as I listened to her clear her throat.

_"Do you...happen to have a crush on anyone?" _she asked, her voice quiet and less perky than normal. _"I-I doubt you do, but, I just wanted to ask, since...My next question kinda..." _she went silent for a moment, a small blush making its way onto her already heart-meltingly adorable face._ "D-depends on it..."_ Immedietley, I felt the tension in the air rise, my head beginning to swim with thoughts along the lines of 'What should I say?' or 'What's she gonna ask?'.

_"N-no, I don't." _I responded, my tone sounding shaky and stuttery, reflecting my now growing panic. _"Why?"_ Sylvia's eyes seemed to spark up, excitement beginning to show itself.

_"T-then...!" _she suddenly stopped, looking at me, smiling ear to ear, an innocent glitter in her eyes. _"D-do you think we could...S-start dating?! Like Lyonette and Copper started doing?!" _the words hit me like a truck, her ecstatic voice ringing in my ears as my heart leapt out of my chest. What would be a sane way of responding to this, do you think? 'Yeah, totally!', 'I thought you'd never ask!', or at least a hug or something? Nah, not me. Not my panicky ass.

_"A-are you crazy?!"_ was my response, unsure of how to feel or think at the time as I watched her expression change from joy to confusion. _"Y-you can't be for real!" _by this point, I'd realised that what I said was wrong, and was clearly leading down the opposite way to what I wanted to say. Looking back on it, I hated how I continued, I could've just said something that put my words in the right direction, but once again. Nah, not me. Not my stupid, dumb awkward ass.

_"W-what do you mean?"_

_"I-I can't do that! I can't handle that!" _I yelped out, pushing her away, my brain beginning to fall over itself as it tried to think of things to say._ "I-I'm leaving!"_

_"W-what? Take me with you!" _she'd persisted, reaching out for my hand with tears in her eyes. In the blink of an eye, I batted her hand away, beginning to turn my back on her, taking a small stride away from her, my legs walking me away as I heard one of my best friends in the whole world, crying her eyes out in utter anguish. I felt sick to my stomach, apalled by my own response and behaviour, knowing full well that I fucked up, and that I had to apologise...and for some ungodly reason, I decided to wait. I waited until Lyo's birthday, waited for a moment where I'd have the chance to say sorry and amend things. The only chance I had was a point where she'd gone out to the park with Lyo, presumably for some one-on-one girl talk. I'd confided in Copper about the whole thing, and soon found myself following his advice to go and follow them, and tell Sylvia how I really felt.

But no. Once again. Nah, not me. Not my unlucky, tardy ass.

I came far too late. I bolted it down the street from Lyo's place, my footsteps clattering against the ground with speed and vigour I've never matched since, my mind swimming with things to say to her, things to rectify everything, things to allow her what she wanted, and for us to become a couple..and then, as I turned a corner, I heard it. The sound of a cry, the horrid scream of a girl, along with the screeching of tires and the snapping of bone. It took a moment for my eyes to figure out what had happened but when I saw it, I felt my stomach churn. On this very same crosswalk, which I was stood in 5 years later, in the middle of the road, was a large truck, its front and windshield splattered with gore, its driver looking out in stunned silence. Lyonette, standing over the road, staring at the ground, her face contorted into a scream, her eyes full of fear and dread. And on the ground, mangled, broken and barely recognisable, was her. Her sea blue eyes, open wide in terror and sadness, her mouth, which she used to sing so much with, open in horror, her silver hair, once soft and luscious looking, now splattered with her own blood, seeping from the horrid wound which now replaced most of her body, viscera sprayed across the sidewalk and asphalt.

My heart took a nose-dive into the dirt, my body beginning to convulse and shake as I processed the traumatic scene before me. I felt ill and faint, tears welling up in my eyes, blurring my vision, finding myself choking. I remembered when we first met her, how happy, healthy and perky she'd been. I remembered how during a sleep over one time, she'd fallen asleep on my lap, resting ever gently. I remembered how she laughed, smiled and sung her heart out with that angelic voice of hers. But no more. No more would we hear her voice, or see her around. She was dead, gone, mangled and desecrated, right in front of us, reduced to naught but bloody remains on the street, taken from us so easily. It was no wonder I fell to my knees, my head falling into my hands, and began crying like a little bitch.

_"This is all because of you." _I swear I heard her voice say to me, echoing through the haze. _"You made me do this, Issei."_

I never wanted this! I never wanted her to do this! I fucked up, I wanted to fix it, but me being the complete dipshit that I am, I failed. I failed so, so, so so very badly. I loved her. I'll admit it, I adored her with every inch of my being, her hair, her eyes, her voice, her smile, how she made us all happy, how she helped us all through hard times- I loved it. I loved it all. But now? She was _gone_, and it was all thanks to _me_! I wish she was here still, I wish she was still with us, with me. I wish that her and I would've had the chance to be like Copper and Lyo, where our fuck-ups with each other only made our bond stronger. But no, once again:

Nah. Not me. Not my selfish, pervy, constantly failing ass.

All of these memories, all from this one crosswalk. From one mistake five years ago. Suddenly, my previous stress of failing Rias by getting by that exorcist, or having to do flyer duty? It was null and void, now replaced with an unshakable feeling of sadness and rage, a feeling directed soley at myself. My head, and strangely, my left arm, in intense pain. I cried out in frustration, flinging my foot into my bike wheel at full force, a loud clank being heard from it. I began to hyperventilate, breathing in and out deeply, attempting to calm myself.

"...No. She wouldn't want me to act like this." I grumbled, holding my arm and looking towards the sky, my eyes raking over the clouds as I began to ponder to myself. Now that I know that Devils and Angels exist...I guess I have more of a reason to think that she's watching me from heaven. I hope she knows how much I miss her and love her. I don't even feel as strong towards Rias or anyone else as I do towards her, and I don't think that'll be changing at all. And hopefully she isn't too upset that I became a Devil...

I wish you were here, Sylvia. I miss you.

* * *

_I watch him from my hiding place, as I have done everyday._

_Does he know that I hear him? Does he know that I see him?_

_The haze had laughed, as if it was some kind of sick game,_

__My heart had had split asunder that day, my body catching up to it's pace,__

_But it does bring a smile to my face, knowing that he feels the same,_

_But worry no more my love, I shall soon be back with our friends, _

_I shall get my wish, my story is far from it's end._

* * *

_**My apologies for the slight change in style, as well as a bit of a break from the main story. I wanted to do a small chapter dedicated to Issei, and do a bit of exposition that'll have a little more relevance later on in the story.**_

_**I hope you enjoyed this regardless~ Thank you for reading, please leave a review if you have anything to say, or any questions you'd like answering~**_


	12. A tour of Kuoh

**_Just a warning, this chapter may be a little bit upsetting..._**

* * *

_Chapter 11 - A Tour of Kuoh  
_

_[Perspective of: Tylia Griffin]_

I'm not sure when the last time I was wandering around town with someone other my mother or sister was, actually. If I'm being honest, I don't recall a time where I _have _done that. It's a strange experience, being completely friendless most of my life and suddenly being thrown into a friendship with a girl who knows less about it than I do. The town, much like it always was in the after school times, was lively and bustling with students walking home from school, chatting and talking on their way, talking about...whatever normal people talk about. Asia and I, on the other hand? We walked in silence, not a word spoken between us. It appeared that Asia was getting a tad weary, as she gazed around at all the people, seeming to struggling to comprehend the crowds.

"Are you okay, Asia?" I asked her, turning my attention towards her at its fullest. "You seem to be struggling a tad."

"O-oh, no. I'm fine." Asia squeaked, smiling at me softly. "T-there's just a lot of people around...I've never seen any place this busy before."

"Welcome to Kuoh." I chuckled, putting a hand on my hip, continuing on. "Despite the fact that this place is fairly small compared to many other places in Japan, it can get really busy sometimes."

"I-I guess so." she responded, giggling a tiny bit and moving a little closer to me. "We shouldn't get lost, should we?" I shook my head in response, a bead of sweat dripping down my brow. It was a somewhat empty promise, due to the fact that other than attending school and occasionally going out with my mother, I never really leave the house, I spend most of my time practicing with my sword, or playing games on my laptop, alwhile hoping that a certain _something_ doesn't interupt me. In other words, I honestly don't know much of the city's layout.

"You can count on me!" I spoke, giving Asia a thumbs up, cringing a tad inside due to the cheesiness of the words that just came out of my mouth. Asia blinked, before giggling and grinning, seemingly happy with my words. At least one of us enjoyed the cringey trash that I just said.

_"I'm starting to sound like my sister, sheesh."_ I thought in silence, walking with Asia without a word. "So...Where first?" I asked, trying to get some idea of where to go on account of the fact that the Occult Research Club's president gave me little to no information to go off of.

"O-oh! Um...What are some fun places around here?" she stated, gazing up at me with sheepish green eyes. "I've already seen the old church and some of the neighbourhoods, but not much else..."

_"Fun places? How am I meant to know that?! I barely ever go outside!"_ I mentally grumbled, feeling a tad irritated for not knowing where to go. "I mean...There should be an arcade around here somewhere."

"A-a what?" she stammered, tilting her head at me quietly, confused by the name. Perhaps she'd never heard about arcades by name before? Surely she must have some kind of knowledge about it.

"An arcade? They're places where they have a lot of different game machines, such as crane games and video game cabinets." I responded, continuing to walk with her, racking my brain and trying to explain what an arcade was. "You can win prizes there too, like stuffed animals and small little toys...It's normally rather expensive to try, though." Asia seemed to think for a moment, seemingly very confused. "...I will show you, don't worry."

The walk to the arcade was quiet and honestly a tad annoying, not because of Asia, mind you, if anything, it was a blessing that she was with me, otherwise I probably would have had a breakdown over the fact that this town is a _fucking **labyrinth**_.

At least, for me it is. As I mentioned, besides occasionally going out to the nearby shops or going to and from school, I never go outisde. I'm what you'd call a 'shut-in', except unlike many pervy NEETs my age, I don't sit on my ass, masturbating to pornography on a screen, or browsing internet forums looking to cause bother, instead, I simply keep myself occupied by practicing with my sword, with the occasional break to play video games on my old ratty laptop, or at least, that's what I used to do, thanks to my laptop getting a downright annoying virus that bothers me whenever I turn it on, so now I just practise my sword skills and read old books my mother gives me. As much as I would like to go into the details of it all, it would possibly be the most boring thing to ever explain anyway.

The arcade was soon in sight, it's neon lights and loud music visible and audible from half the street away, but what made the journey worth it was seeing Asia's expression. Her eyes had lit up, much like the very lights that we were approaching, a look of amazement on her face as we neared the flashing building. Clearly, she'd never seen anything like it in her life. It was quite endearing, and it frankly made me feel a little warm and fuzzy just looking at her like that.

As I thought on it a tiny bit more, Asia herself was rather endearing...might I say 'cute'. She looked a fair bit like me, but with longer hair, a smaller body and a more innocent and pleasant face...It was hard to believe that this was the same girl who was on the brink of being violated just last night.

"Um...Tylia?" I heard Asia say, snapping out of my thoughts, realising that she was stood in front of me, looking a tiny bit concerned. "Are you okay?" It took my mind a moment to parse what was happening, but I responded promptly.

"Yes, I'm fine." I had responded, smiling at her and chuckling a tad, before looking over at the arcade. "This is the Arcade that I was on about, it's got plenty of stuff to do there, like video games, prize games, ticket machines, and a fair few other things." Asia's gaze drifted back towards the large neon light-rich building in front of us, a small smile finding it's way onto her face.

"It looks really bright and colourful!" she squeaked, a cute little giggle sounding from her, before she looked at me, tilting her head. "A-are we going in?" I hadn't intended on taking her in there, but considering the fact that I had my purse on me, and a tiny bit of money to spare...

_"What's the harm in letting her try a few things out?"_

"If you want to, yes." I responded, putting a hand on my hip and nodding. "I'm sure the club's president won't mind if we goof off a little." I'm sure that Gremory would likely mind that we goofed off a little, but unlike my sister, I'm not contractually obligated to listen to her fully.

_"I love bureaucracy."_

My words were met with a small cheer from Asia, who smiled brightly as she looked at me. I giggled, beginning to walk into the arcade, the J-pop that played over its speakers being naught but background noise, a simple repeat of the same single from that idol I can never remember the name of that I've heard a billion times on the radio. I never understood why people like this sort of stuff, but I guess that's just me. Asia had her face pressed up against the glass of one of the claw machines, her eyes shining as she eyed all the stuffed animals inside of it.

_"And so it begins."_ I thought, going over to Asia and looking inside of it with her. "Are you wanting to have a go on it?" Asia made a small yelping noise, turning to me with a bashful look on her face.

"I-if that's okay!" she exclaimed, looking up at me with a hint of puppy-dog eyes. I sighed, passing over 100 yen to her, smiling gently, nodding slowly. Asia's eyes lit up once more as she eagerly put the money in the slot, her gaze directed at the crane as a little jingle played from the machine, the claw juttering a little as it was released from its locked state. Asia looked at the controls, fidgeting a little, clearly confused as she looked to me for help. I moved next to her, looking at the control panel myself, blinking.

I didn't understand why she didn't already know how to do this stuff already, had her parents ever took her to an arcade or anything before? Did she even _have_ parents? It certainly didn't seem like it, otherwise she wouldn't have been with the Stray Priest and his Fallen Angel retinue. All these thoughts crossed my mind as I idily moved the control stick, moving to the nearest prize in the machine and hitting the button, watching the crane go down upon it, snagging it in it's three claws and to my surprise, it brought it straight over to the prize area. I blinked, a look of surprise crossing my face.

_"Did I just do that?"_

The soft thunk of the stuffed animal hitting the bottom of the prize payout compartment confirmed it. For the first time in my life, I had won a crane game and got something from it. Asia looked at me with a look of joy on her face, her eyes shining as I stood there, shocked by my own luck. I blinked, coming back to my senses, before looking at Asia.

"And that...is how you use a claw machine?" I told her, not even sounding 100% convinced myself, still in shock from the fact that I actually won for once.

"That was so cool! You must have practised a lot!" Asia gushed, looking at me with wide and glistening eyes. I twitched a little, an awkward grin finding its way onto my face as I chuckled nervously.

"Y-yeahh...I practise a lot." I lied through my teeth, feeling my face heat up a tad as I squatted down, opening the prize compartment and looking at the thing I won: A small, cutesy plushie of a cat, it was very soft and squishy, as a plushie should be. I stood up, passing the toy to Asia- I did kind of just steal her turn, so I figured I should give the prize to her. A quiet squeal emenated from the blonde as she gazed at the small stuffed toy, cuddling it to her chest lovingly.

"It's so cuuute~!" she exclaimed, snuggling up to it rather hard, stuffing the little toy into her bust. I couldn't help but go a bit red-faced, the warm, fuzzy feeling returning to me as I studied Asia's chid-like wonder. If I'm being honest, seeing her all happy like this...It makes me feel happy too. I was happy to have made her happy, knowing that if I hadn't saved her last night, she wouldn't be like this at all.

Never, in my life, have I felt such an urge to protect someone as I felt right then. My heart leapt as Asia stopped snuggling her new toy, looking up at me with an adorable smile on her face.

"Thank you, Tylia~!" she cried, her voice ecstatic and joyful as she rushed closer to me and hugged me softly, her face in my chest as she wrapped her arms around me. It was nearly enough to make me cry, nearly, as I had to choke back tears. I'd never been thanked so sincerely in my life, and for it to come from someone like this...It was close, very close. I could barely articulate words, with the only thing I could say being a strained:

"Y-you're very welcome, Asia~!"

My mind is made up, no matter how I slice it: I will protect this girl with my life.

* * *

_[Perspective of: Lyonette Griffin]_

It's the same as last time. Rias tells us to go hand out flyers, and instantly, Issei launches himself out the door, leaving me in the dust. Anyone would think he hates my guts, with how quick he is to run when he hears the order. Where does that leave me? Standing in an alleyway, out of the way of pedestrians, sorting out my stack of flyers with a frown on my face.

"Stupid Issei...I hate it when he runs off without me." I muttered to myself, fumbling a tad with the papers as I felt a small bit of movement in my bag.

"Do you need help out there?" I heard Ragna ask, her voice muffled by the bag which she was wiggling around inside of. "I can feel you struggling from in here!"

"Nope! I'll be fine, just stay in the bag!" I hissed at my bag, surely looking like an absolute mad-woman.

"Well, I'm coming out anyway!" with those words, I felt the wriggling in my bag grow more vigourous as the zipper of it came open and the small dragon squirmed out, hopping onto the ground in front of me, trotting to my side and shifting into her human form in the blink of an eye, catching me by surprise.

"Sheesh...Let's hope no-one saw that..." I grumbled, looking at her and shaking my head, watching her simply giggle and curtsey, her dress making her stick out like a sore thumb. Hell, everything about her makes her stick out like a sore thumb- she _really _doesn't fit in a place like Kuoh, but then again, I suppose that could be said about pretty much everything to do with this...stuff.

"I assure you, I don't think anyone will think much of it." she stated, a bright smile on her face, before she straightened the flyers out for me, grabbing them off me. "Shall we get to handing out flyers, my lady~?" I blinked, my cheeks reddening a tad at the new moniker I apparently had.

"Um...Sure." I stated, nodding slowly as I cleared my throat, putting a hand on my hip. "Let's get going, I guess..." and so, Ragna and I set off out of the alleyway and into the street. I slowly pulled my scarf over the bottom of my face, covering my mouth and nose, a small change in Ragna's expression, that of befuddlement catching my attention, prompting me to raise an eyebrow at her questioningly. "...Something up?"

"Not really?" she stated, keeping her gaze trained on my scarf, blinking her eyes. "Your scarf just looks a little bit familiar, that's all." she giggled and patted my head softly, smiling brightly once more. "It looks very cute, though!"

"T-thank you?" I responded, keeping my scarf over my face as we walked along the street. It was less than a minute later that Ragna had grasped my scarf, seemingly feeling the material it was made of, much to my surprise.

"It's so soft, too!" she spoke with a giggle, a happy grin on her face as she continued to mess with my scarf, giggling like a little kid. "I bet it's really comfy to wear!"

"I-I mean, it is, but..." I stole a glance at my companion, who was relatively close to me, her face being only a few inches from my own as she played with the small frills at the end of my scarf. A small blush crossed my face, a small 'eep!' noise escaping me. "W-why are you...feeling it up?"

"Hm?" Ragna tilted her head, blinking her odd eyes at me. "Am I...n-not meant to do that?"

"I-it's kinda weird to do." I mumbled, too embarassed to elaborate further, which only seemed to further her confusion, simply nodding and clearing her throat, looking around, before looking down at the flyers, clearing her throat.

"So...Who do we give these to? Or do we just...place them around?" she asked, swiftly changing the topic as she looked to me with confusion on her face.

"I normally just place them around." I responded, looking back at her. "It looks a little less suspicious than just giving them normally, if people see me giving out weird flyers, they're gonna think even worse of me."

"I see, I see..." she mused, looking down at the flyers, blinking. "I assume that...people don't normally give out flyers like this?"

"Not flyers like _this_, no." I replied, shaking my head as we walked. "I don't know if there are many Devils around here, or anyone who knows about the supernatural...Hell, I'm still pretty new to it, so..." I shrugged, sighing a tad, turning back to the path in front of us. A few heads turned to us as we walked down the street, seemingly paying the most attention to Ragna, presumabley due to her strange attire, but then again, seeing a gothic lolita on the street handing out flyers is probably no sort of weird occurrence here, since I think Rias has someone similar run errands for her. Ragna seemed to have fun placing flyers randomly around the area, seeming oddly content and happy with it, a little bounce in her step as she put them where she saw fit, even with all the strange looks she got from people.

"You look like you're enjoying yourself." I stated, a slight spark of intrigue in my voice. Ragna blinked, looking back at me, tilting her head slowly to the left.

"...Is that a problem?" she asked, a small bit of innocence in her voice, blinking her eyes at me slowly as she stood up straight.

"N-not really." I responded, my voice still muffled due to my scarf. "I just didn't really expect to see anyone who enjoys doing...well, this." Ragna smiled once again, giggling softly.

"Well, it's my job, is it not?" she spoke, looking at me with a hand put on her hip. "I'm meant to help you out with things and enjoy it! That's my job as your familiar.~" she ended her sentence with a small curtsey and a small giggle. Ragna had always struck me as weird, but today had ramped that idea up a lot, from her behaviour, her appearance, speech patterns, everything about her was weird.

Since she brought herself into things a few days ago, this girl _has_ tried to help me where she can, and here she was, openly saying that her whole purpose is to help me with things, suddenly, some of those things were making a bit of sense, although, not much. There's still the question of where she came from, or what caused her to start serving _me _of all people, she said that she was tied with the Destruction Gear, which I guess is the name of my Sacred Gear, but from the looks of it, it already had something like Ragna in the form of Equinox. Albeit, Equinox seems to be nowhere near as clueless, or kind as Ragna.

_"Come to think of it...Where did any of this come from? Why did I of all people have this weird gauntlet thing?" _I thought, looking down at my hand, frowning a tiny bit and blinking. _"And then there's Issei's Sacred Gear...What does that do?"_

**_"Thinking awfully hard about things, aren't you Lyonette?"_** Equinox piped up, sounding somewhat pleased with this. _**"Frankly, if I could remember much more about some of this stuff, I'd tell you the answers, but alas..."**_

_"...You haven't said anything about that though. What DO you remember?"  
_

**_"Nothing that can't be said later on at home. I'd suggest getting this task done before you start bothering this old Devil about her memories."_**

_"Fine, be that way..."_

After a while of Ragna and I walking, we found ourselves walking down a street, the bustle of cars passing by making up most of the noise we heard, along with the chatter of idle pedestrians. Ragna gazed at the road, observing the cars with raised eyebrows- Anyone would think she'd have never seen cars before, which considering where she came from, makes a lot of sense, who knows how long she's been tied into my Sacred Gear?

"The human world is more exciting than I could have imagined!" she exclaimed, putting her hands to her cheeks, that big smile still across her face. "I didn't notice anything while we were putting out the flyers, but-" she hopped a tad, bringing a hand around to point everything out as she looked at me with shining eyes. "Such tall buildings and refined arcitecture! Not to mention the strange metal objects on wheels that I've seen trundlling around!" her words told me everything I needed to know. If Ragna is so out of the loop with everything around us, then she must have literally been born a few days ago when I found her, it was the only reason I could think of off of the top of my head for her lack of general knowledge...either that, or she's just that much of a dunce.

_"Then again...She's a familiar."_ I thought, watching Ragna as she hopped down the street, enjoying the sights around us. _"I don't exactly know what one is...but I don't think they're very smart, if Ragna's any_ _case." _it was after a small walk, where I had watched Ragna skip around and act excited about everything she was seeing, that we soon happened across a small playground, which was strangely empty, surely enough, Ragna was staring at it in wonder and befuddlement.

"Such a quaint little place!" she exclaimed, her eyes scanning over the various monkey bars and slides. I let a small giggle slip out of me, shaking my head slightly. It was weirdly cute, seeing her act so excited over something so boring...I guess being impressed with things you never knew about works both ways, huh?

"Man, you're really easy to impress." I observed, leaning against the fence as Ragna stared around at the apparatus, before her eyes found their way to me.

"O-oh! It's just that...I've never seen anything like this before..." she stated, turning her head to me with a smile and a giggle. "It's...quite a lot better than being cooped up in a bag, no offense." I sighed, shaking my head, looking around the crosswalk we were stood near, a small frown crossing my face.

"I mean...I-I can't exactly let people see anything weird, can I? Pretty sure we're meant to keep the Devil stuff to a minimum..." I stated, peering around the crosswalk and the neighbouring playground, blinking my eyes and turning back to Ragna, clearing my throat, trying to keep the conversation going to keep my mind off of the bad memories I had of this place.

_"Don't think about it..." _I sighed, crossing my arms, my frown deepening, my attempt to take my mind off it failing, as I began to remember what happened on my birthday 5 years ago.

It was during summer, that one of my closest friends, Sylvia, was hit by a truck at this very crosswalk, leaving her mangled and dead. Issei, her, Copper and I had all gathered at my house to hang out, but...I kinda started taking notice that Sylvia and Issei were a bit more distant from each other than they usually were. Normally those two would be getting on just fine, but...neither of them looked like they wanted to be near the other. I was curious, not to mention really worried, and approached Sylvia, asking her if she was alright...next minute, she's asking to talk to me in private, as...

_"I don't want to make Issei mad more than I have."_

We'd arrived at this very playground, sat on a set of swings, underneath the flaming hot August sun, I was sat on the left, idily swinging as I watched Sylvia, sat still, her gaze cast at the ground, wiping some sweat off her brow.

_"Sheesh...This is why I don't like summertime..."_ she'd muttered under her breath, folding her arms around herself, blinking slowly.

_"Yeah...But hey, at least we're gonna be back in a ventilated place soon..." _I said, tilting my head. _"...So, what's up, anyway?"_

_"W-well..." _Sylvia had stuttered, beginning to relay to me what was on her mind. "I...did what you told me. I confessed to Issei..." I raised an eyebrow, beginning to piece together what was going on.

"...How did it go?" I asked, a small frown on my face, already knowing the answer before she even spoke.

"H-he...rejected me." she sniffled, her eyes beginning to water, her tears reflecting a tiny bit of sunlight. "He called me crazy, and just...left me!" a small hum came from me as I thought over this information, my brow furrowing.

"W-what? Why?" I asked, unsure of why Issei would do such a thing, ceasing my swinging to stare her down inqusitively.

_"Sheesh...that's rough. Issei would never pass up that sort of oppurtunity." _I remember thinking to myself, finding myself getting a little mad at what I was hearing.

_"He said he couldn't handle it..."_ she mumbled, her gaze still down to the ground, small tears running down her face. _"H-he was panicking a lot, but...still. I don't know what I did wrong."_

"I don't..." I was unsure of how to respond, still trying to think over why Issei would respond like that. "I don't know...I don't think you did anything wrong." I patted her back softly, trying to help keep her calm, unsure of how to make her feel better about it.

_"I-I must've!"_ she exclaimed, her voice sounding shaky, full of discomfort and stress. _"Why else would he have responded like that?!"_

_"I-I..."_ I'd stammered, blinking slowly, trying to think of a possible explaination, my lips curling into a small frown as I thought to myself.

_"Damn it...This is the last thing I need right now...Think Lyonette, think..."_

_"You said he was...p-panicking, right? Maybe he might not have been thinking straight?"_ Sylvia had looked up at me, tilting her head._ "Maybe...Maybe you might need to say to him again! He...might have made a impulsive decision...You know how Issei is, after all."_ there was a moment of silence between us, as Sylvia seemed to think over it, sniffling softly, her gaze drifting down.

_"...I-I suppose...I could try it."_ she'd mumbled, looking back up at me, nodding slowly, a slight smile on her face. _"...Y-you're right...Issei is a bit of a dummy..."_ she giggled a tiny bit, staring at me with teary blue eyes, seemingly cheering up somewhat. _"...Y-you know what!? I'm going to ask him how he really feels! M-maybe..." _the typical spark returned to Sylvia's determined eyes, a small grin of resolve on her face. _"Maybe him and I can become a couple! Like you and Copper!" _

_"Damn right!" _I giggled, breathing a sigh of relief, happy that I'd somehow made her better. _"You go, girl~!" _Sylvia, in her excitement, began to dash away, leaving me feeling like it was a crysis averted, a mission accomplished...

But...Things are never that easy, are they? Of course they fucking aren't. Next thing I knew, I was yelling Sylvia's name, reaching my hand out to her as a loud, blood curdling shriek resonated across the crosswalk, an ear-bursting, deafening crash following in its wake, assaulting my senses with the horrid stench of burning rubber and...blood. It took my mind a moment to catch up, but when it did...All I saw was red. Red, splattered across the street, decorating the pavement with a sanguine paint, reeking of death. My body shook as I stared at the scene in front of me- A truck, a large one, had screeched to a halt, slamming full force into her...Sylvia was nowhere to be seen, gone was the silver haired friend, who was just moments before full of such determination, all that was in her place- the only thing that could be barely recognised as her...

Was a mangled, gore splattered corpse. Forever screaming silently.

_"No! This can't be happening!" _I'd screeched in my mind, my face a perfect picture of disgust and shock as my eyes welled up with tears._ "She can't be dead...! She can't be!"_

But, no matter how much I wished- she was dead. No matter how much I denied what was in front of me, no matter how much I screamed at the stain that used to be my friend, Sylvia was _gone, _and nothing I could do would change that. It was a chore, but I supressed the urge to vomit, my stomach churning as I stared, paralysed with despair.

_"S-Sylvia...?" _was the only word I could squeak out, before breaking down and blacking out...

The following days were hellish and agonising, as the news quickly spread to Issei, who had just come looking for Sylvia, as well as Copper, who Issei had told upon arrival back at the house. Over time, Copper and I had managed to keep ourselves in check, never forgetting our friend, but tried our best to keep the ball rolling...But Issei? He was _devastated_. For the first two months of our time at Kuoh, he hadn't left the house once, nor responded to any texts or messages, he became a shut-in and grieved in silence, and for a while, Copper and I thought he'd offed himself...which was a horrible thought. So imagine our relief when Issei came to school one morning...albeit, he wasn't himself. He was quiet and barely ever spoke to us, barely ever showing emotion, falling asleep in class a lot...A lot different to the pervy dork we'd gotten used to. It was horrible, even now, I feel my heart sink whenever I think about that empty, hollow look in his eyes...And even if he's back to normal nowadays...

He still insists he sees Sylvia around, standing in the corner of his vision, watching him with a pained smirk, never speaking or moving, but always disappearing upon being noticed.

No wonder the guy was so quick to accept Yuuma's offer to be his girfriend...the poor bastard just wanted someone he could love. And who robbed him of that happiness the first time? It was yours truly...I was the one to tell Sylvia to confess too early, as well as the one who encouraged her to run to find him, resulting in her death...It happens to anyone around me, specifically on my birthday...

It's because of me that Sylvia is dead. It's because of me and my stupid cursed birthday that all these horrible things happened. It's because of me that Issei never got to experience being loved by someone who truly cares for him...and here I am, thinking the same thoughts I'd been thinking when I was tying a noose around my own neck, ready to throw it all away.

_"If I never existed, then everyone would be happy."_

And...to be honest, ever since then, that noose hasn't looked any less inviting.

"...Lyonette, please, calm yourself." I snapped back to reality, breaking free of my horrid memories and looking around with blurred vision, blinking tears in my eyes and finding myself being hugged close by Ragna, sniffling and sobbing quietly onto her shoulder as she patted my back, rubbing it gently. I hadn't even realised that I'd zoned out, nevermind crumbled onto Ragna and started crying. "Ly-Lyonette...My lady, please...stop crying." I sniffled, glaring up at Ragna's face. Who the fuck does she think she is? Telling me to stop crying as if she knows the shit I've seen, or the people I've fucked up the lives of.

"S-shut it...You don't know how I feel!" I snapped, my words shaky and shrill, unable to get my words out correctly in my rage. Ragna tilted her head, simply putting her hand on the back of my head, rubbing up and down gently, irritating me further. "Y-you...You'll never know how I feel! N-nobody does..." Ragna stole a glance around, seemingly wincing a tad at my words, like she actually cared for what I was saying, as if she was in pain from hearing me.

"...I-I know...You are very right, but..." she hugged me tighter, rubbing the back of my head and putting her own next to mine. "I'm your familiar. I'm here to help you. I..." she stopped for a moment, her normal smile now replaced with a worried frown. "...I want you to know, Lyonette, that whatever it is that's made you so sad, and upset...I'm here for you to talk to." I sniffled, looking at her, feeling a slight bit of warmth from her words, but...in the end, it doesn't matter...Does it?"

"You're only saying that because I'm your fucking _master_!" I whined, shaking as Ragna continue to embarace me, a small blush creeping onto my face. "You don't care...You're just my familiar...!" Ragna seemed to tense up a slight bit, taking a small gasp of breath in, before her grip softened once more as she moved her face in front of mine, looking at me with a stern expression, a slight warmth in her eyes.

"...Then, don't think of me as your familiar." she stated, sounding a lot less chirpy, sounding a lot more serious than she had before. "Think of me as...Your big sister." a small gasp came from my mouth, her words seemingly hitting a nerve, my eyes beginning to tear up once more. Thinking of Ragna as a big sister...it makes no sense, she's more clueless than I am and barely knows me...but, her eyes, despite her expression, her eyes are so warm and gentle...it's like I'm not even looking at the same goofball who was I was walking around with not too long ago.

"...Big sister...?" I repeated, my voice tremoring as I blinked tears out of my eyes, a small smile finding it's way onto my face as I repeated the words in my head... "Yeah...I-I...I'd like that."

I could feel my heart raising slightly, my arms slowly wrapping around Ragna as tears ran down my face. It was comfortable, very much so...

I guess I didn't power through my grief as well as I thought I did, huh? But...it doesn't matter. I've got someone who can help me now. Ragna, my familiar...and, my honourary big sister.

"L-Lyo?!" I heard a boy's voice cry out, surprise clear to me. I turned my head to look at him, finding none other than Issei, standing there, hauling that silly bike of his, looking gone out at me. "Wh-who is that?"

"...Hey." I mumbled, feeling too emotionally drained to act out at this point, at this point, I just felt happy that he was okay. "...It's a long story."

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**Hello! Thank you for reading this story's 11th chapter~ I worked hard on it, as you can tell. Next chapter will be more based around Asia and Tylia, as I feel like I didn't give them enough time in the spotlight...But, either way! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please tell me what you think in the reviews~**

**And, to kpop1392as, the person who left 11 reviews on this story? Thank you very much, you gave me a rather big motivation boost when I really needed it~**

**Anyway, see you all next chapter!**


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